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cant touch or eat certain foods


Guest eden1616

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Guest eden1616

so i have this thing with certain foods that i cant go near and mushrooms are the worst i cant touch them or eat them or eat anything that has been cooked with them or touch a container that they have been in or touch anything someone who might have touched one could have touched and it is very annoying because if i accidently touch something i have to wash my hands except with mushrooms i could be washing them for hours and they still wouldn't feel clean and it makes me very upset because my family likes mushrooms and they always want to cook with them but it actually makes me cry if i even brush past something that might have touched them. does this happen with anyone else and food?

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It doesn't happen with me.....but then OCD has so many variations it's not unusual if you don't find someone else with the same problem. OCD problems can be infinite.

There isn't a problem with mushrooms....the problems lie with the rules and behaviours you have put in place to try and prevent the anxiety that occurs.

These are rules (avoidances) that you have created in an effort to avoid anxiety. Sadly, it doesn't stop the anxiety at all. It just complicates life and increases anxiety.

The best answer is to "Do" mushrooms in every way you can. Touch them, look at them and eventually...eat them and work through the anxiety it provokes..

As with all exposures....this often has to be a gradual exposure. Maybe looking at images of mushrooms, reading mushroom recipes, sitting next to a few, touching one, cooking mushrooms for someone else.....tasting one.

Have you/are you receiving any help for this?

Caramoole :)

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You can physically do it but as Caramoole said, you can gradually expose yourself. You don't have to up and eat a mushroom on the first day. You start off slow with simple exposures. learning to live with the anxiety created and seeing that the anxiety goes down all by itself. Then you do another, slightly harder exposure. It's gradual and it can be done.

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Guest eden1616

How much does this impact your life do you think?

Are you seeing a cbt therapist?

it is not as much as some other things as it depends on when there are mushrooms in the house but it does a lot during autumn and winter months and there are a lot of wild mushrooms that grow where i live and i means i take a long time to walk places.

and i am seeing a psychologist who can do cbt

Edited by eden1616
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Guest eden1616

You can physically do it but as Caramoole said, you can gradually expose yourself. You don't have to up and eat a mushroom on the first day. You start off slow with simple exposures. learning to live with the anxiety created and seeing that the anxiety goes down all by itself. Then you do another, slightly harder exposure. It's gradual and it can be done.

i understand what you are saying but i think even if i just looked at one i would start crying and my anxiety doesn't reduce i have panic attacks that last for days and only stop when the thing is gone so i dont know how that would work because i would just end up exhausted.

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i would start crying and my anxiety doesn't reduce i have panic attacks that last for days

This is because of the thoughts that you have that feed the anxiety and panic and make it escalate. Working with a good therapist you can devise skills and strategies to help reduce this and bring it back under control.

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Guest eden1616

This is because of the thoughts that you have that feed the anxiety and panic and make it escalate. Working with a good therapist you can devise skills and strategies to help reduce this and bring it back under control.

i know what you are saying but when i have panic attacks i often like zone out and i cant speak or i start hurting myself and i pretty much go into my own little space and this has happened during my sessions before and my psychologist has tried to pull me out of it but it hasnt worked. and that hasnt happened for a while but my panic attacks have been getting worse and i am finding it harder to control myself and i am scared that if that happened during a session i would do something horrible not to mention it would be super embarrassing

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You could start with mental exposures. Only close your eyes and picture yourself in the scene. Make it black and white. Then watch yourself in the scene only looking at a mushroom. Then repeat that exercise. Next move up to seeing yourself touch the mushroom and eventually eating it. If you see yourself cry in the vizualization watching yourself, then stay calm and simply watch yourself.

It'll be a lot easier if you start out dissociated like that and only use visualizations. Once those are going better without anxiety then physically expose yourself though not until then.

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Guest eden1616

You could start with mental exposures. Only close your eyes and picture yourself in the scene. Make it black and white. Then watch yourself in the scene only looking at a mushroom. Then repeat that exercise. Next move up to seeing yourself touch the mushroom and eventually eating it. If you see yourself cry in the vizualization watching yourself, then stay calm and simply watch yourself.

It'll be a lot easier if you start out dissociated like that and only use visualizations. Once those are going better without anxiety then physically expose yourself though not until then.

i hadn't thought about mental exposures for physical things but i will thanks.

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i know what you are saying but when i have panic attacks i often like zone out

Panic attacks are very frightening but they are fuelled or sustained by your thoughts. Even though it's dreadfully uncomfortable, it's still worth working with a therapist to improve your skills at handling panic. Whatever the thoughts you experience you will not do something horrible or dangerous.

Whatever it takes (as with ADD's suggestions) there's always a place you can take it back to to start practising.

Panics can be terrifying, awful, vile but they won't actually cause harm as such.

Try with the mental imagery perhaps.....whatever it takes. Take it back to a place that causes discomfort and then build on that :}

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Guest eden1616

. Whatever the thoughts you experience you will not do something horrible or dangerous.

i have done something horrible and dangerous before it isnt just thoughts that is what concerns me i start hitting myself and sometimes i throw things and rip things and it just gets very intense.

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i have done something horrible and dangerous before it isnt just thoughts that is what concerns me i start hitting myself and sometimes i throw things and rip things and it just gets very intense.

You can learn to handle this differently, in fact it's important that you do for your own well being.. When you do these things it's not because you can't stop it, you just haven't yet learned to handle the emotions in a different way.

You need to work with your therapist on panic disorder and learn more effective methods to deal with it. Panic doesn't make you lose control (although it can feel that way) , they are inappropriate methods that you're using because you feel out of control.....but the bottom line is that you are choosing these methods but can change them with help.

If you want to improve your panic response you have to be open to changing it......And you can with time

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Guest eden1616

i am open to changing them and i want to because it upsets my family and it is annoying but i wouldnt say i am choosing those methods i work VERY hard to not do those things but i get into a state where i simply cant stop it from happening if it was me choosing i wouldnt do it.

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What Caramoole is talking about is that this is about your reaction to the panic and that, although seeming to be automatic, is actually a learned response. You choose to react a certain way because that's the way you've taught yourself to react in the past. You can, however, learn new ways of dealing with panic in the future and then choose to react that way.

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Guest eden1616

What Caramoole is talking about is that this is about your reaction to the panic and that, although seeming to be automatic, is actually a learned response. You choose to react a certain way because that's the way you've taught yourself to react in the past. You can, however, learn new ways of dealing with panic in the future and then choose to react that way.

i understand what she is saying but i dont think i am explaining myself very well because i dont think people understand what i am saying. i know it is about my reaction but it isnt something i am choosing to do i understand that there are ways you can try and react differently but the current reaction i am having is NOT a choice i have tried to stop for years and i am not deciding to do it but i think no matter how i try to explain it i wont be able to do it properly.

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I understand what you are saying. I really do. If the way you react to a mushroom or something else is not a choice, what is it?

You can choose to touch a mushroom. You can. Just like you choose not to every time you see one. Thou shalt not touch a mushroom is not encoded in your DNA. It became part of you as a learned response and each and every time you do not touch a mushroom you are choosing not to. You could choose to touch a mushroom but you don't because you have trained yourself that there is something very wrong with mushrooms.

Because you have the ability to touch a mushroom, by choice, not doing so must also be a choice. You choose safety. You choose not to engage with the anxiety you think you will feel by touching a mushroom. You choose not to go there.

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i know it is about my reaction but it isnt something i am choosing to do i understand that there are ways you can try and react differently but the current reaction i am having is NOT a choice

If these are panic attacks, anxiety attacks etc then I have to disagree with you that you don't have a choice. Just as someone has to learn anger management, you must learn to manage your anger/fear against yourself, it is within your control. If you aren't in control then you must insist on some more professional help asap.

If this is panic there IS a choice as to how you respond

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Guest jeremyyyyy

I used to have something like this! i used to be in the supermarket and i didn't know what fruit to choose because in my head only one of them was good and the others were bad

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Guest eden1616

I understand what you are saying. I really do. If the way you react to a mushroom or something else is not a choice, what is it?

You can choose to touch a mushroom. You can. Just like you choose not to every time you see one. Thou shalt not touch a mushroom is not encoded in your DNA. It became part of you as a learned response and each and every time you do not touch a mushroom you are choosing not to. You could choose to touch a mushroom but you don't because you have trained yourself that there is something very wrong with mushrooms.

Because you have the ability to touch a mushroom, by choice, not doing so must also be a choice. You choose safety. You choose not to engage with the anxiety you think you will feel by touching a mushroom. You choose not to go there.

i dont mean the touching the mushrooms i mean what happens to me during a panic attack is not a choice i mean when i am in the middle of a bad panic attack i am not choosing to cry i am not choosing to scream i am not choosing to hit myself it just starts happening.

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Guest eden1616

If these are panic attacks, anxiety attacks etc then I have to disagree with you that you don't have a choice. Just as someone has to learn anger management, you must learn to manage your anger/fear against yourself, it is within your control. If you aren't in control then you must insist on some more professional help asap.

If this is panic there IS a choice as to how you respond

i know there are ways to try and learn different reactions but CURRENTLY the panic attacks i am having when they happen i am not in control of myself i understand that is a problem but i cant help it. i dont know how to explain it but maybe we will just have to agree to disagree.

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i understand that is a problem but i cant help it

We will have to agree to disagree.....because you can control those reactions, you just haven't learned how to do so yet....and that's my point. You need to get some help on dealing with panic attacks before you move on to the other exposure issues.

Panic attacks make us FEEL as though we lose control but we do actually retain control of what we do and screaming and hitting yourself has become your reaction to the fear you feel but it's not actually an automatic, certain response.

Do you have a therapist to help you?

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