Health compulsions

[AnxiousAnnie]

Heavily pregnant and desperately trying not to end up on meds again before the birth. But have gone down the ALS rabbithole again and have developed a ton of compulsions including googling pictures trying to find others with similar asymmetry between limb muscles to me, comparing appearance of my own limbs and tests of muscles strength particularly hands and feet. Not finding MH services overly helpful at present. Anyone been through similar who can help talk me through the hard times when I'm panicking about muscles failing and deteriorating??

[Handy]

Once the baby is born it should get better. 

[AnxiousAnnie]

There is no guarantee of that although I am hopeful elements of it may improve. And that is weeks away yet. 

[AnxiousAnnie]

Bump. Is this even solvable without medication as well? 

[snowbear]

Whatever the obsession is about you treat it the same way. You have to start resisting the compulsion to google stuff. Refuse to listen to yourself when you get thoughts about your muscles failing.

Getting yourself out of the rabbithole can be hard, but it starts with being prepared to change the way you think.

Give yourself permission to ignore the thoughts/ anxiety. Then get busy with other things and resist, resist, resist those compulsions.

Much harder to resist if at some level you're still telling yourself the lie, 'I must know/ google/ check...'

[Angst]

It is a common feature in OCD to like things symmetrical. It is one of the standard OCD types. Though yours is tied to health issues. Though your asymmetrical concerns are applied to health. So you need to stop the body checking. I occasionally suffer from this over a concern of oral cancer. I look in a mirror and feel my tongue and gums for something different from one side of the mouth to the other. I’m going to the dentist tomorrow but for my six month check up and cleaning!  The only answer is to stop the checking of your body and images of other bodies.

[AnxiousAnnie]

It is really hard tho when there are genuine odd asymmetries in musculature and muscles strength that I can't see on others. Makes me want to cover up completely so I can't be seen but not possible in this weather

[Angst]

Are your OCD concerns about asymmetries and the supposed health AND aesthetic implications?  On the principle of do the opposite to what OCD wants: bear all within the confines of public decency!

[AnxiousAnnie]

Mainly health implications but the aesthetics do bother me a little. 

Not sure what you mean by "bear all within the confines of public decency!"