Hi Scarlet,


They happen all day long, off and on, and seem independent of stress. They are of a similar vein to involuntary jerking movements - which is a symptom of mercury toxicity. I've noticed they intensify after eating, and some days are better than others. The blinking compulsion I've had off and on since childhood - probably related to dental work, but it's so long ago that it's impossible to remember if I had dental work just before they started up.


I've found that helped with some counting rituals. I get two kind of counting symtoms, which I'm not sure people want to know about, by maybe someone else gets them too (it's not easy to talk about these kind of things). The ritualistic counting symtpoms I get are tied to a feeling of something going wrong if I don't do it - I used to have to avoid anything in 2 or 6 or 13, I had to leave either 5 or 7 hours between something, but never 6 or 2. Same would apply to days, weeks, months, and pretty much anything from brands of chocolate to watching videos. This was extremely debiliating as it was very intrusive into my life.

I have managed to overcome this about 90%, and these days if I feel a twinge of fear if something falls in 2 or 6 etc, then I try to suppress it. At one time I couldn't, but that was when I had braces and fillings and I do believe there is only so much we can do by force of will to battle the devastating impacts of mercury (which I know you are aware of, but some people aren't and think we shoudl be able to control ourselves).

The second kind of counting I get is just involuntary, and not tied at all to something bad happening - it's like the jerking movements. My mind just starts to count sometimes if I do something repetative - whether it's brush strokes, walking, stairs. But it comes and goes and I do have some success suppressing it, but it's difficult. I wonder sometimes if this could be like what happens with autistic kids - the mind dysfynctions due to mercury. I find this counting "annoying" and I would like it to be gone (has only really returned the past couple of years since having dental work and a decaying amalgam).


I think so aswell, at least I hope so. I did get such a big improvement when my braces came out and I stopped getting fillings. The anxiety and phobias are one of the hardest symptoms for me to deal with. I have so many phobias, some more intrusive than others. I have a phobia of things falling off walls or shelves - which can makes travel difficult, phobia of germs, which means I have to leave the washing up for my family because if I attempt to wash up, I will have to do it over and over and over because I'll be afraid there are germs still on the plate and forks etc (my family just think I'm lazy, lol). At one time even the thought of kissing someone was repulsive to me as the thought of all the germs. This is a very common phobia for OCD sufferers. I have a phobia of spiders (sometimes wake up thinking they are falling on me), a phobia of gas (which means I have to check appliances a lot of times and that the carbon monoxide detector is working), a phobia of hurting people, caustophobia (spelling), phobia of lifts (but this is getting better), a phobia of loud noises (like I can't go to pop concerts as the noise gives me panic attack), medical phobia, phobia of using contact lenses, phobia of childbirth (which also influences how I feel about sex/intimacy), and now I have got a phobia of metals in foods. I could go on, but this is long enough already <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> But all these impact my quality of life. Yet, I still manage to function relatively normally. For those with chronic OCD it's a lot worse, they can't even leave the house (which I'm sure you are well aware of).



I understand. My family are burying their head in the sand about my condition. They just can't cope with it. To make matters worse, my mother is mentall ill, and has been a long time (which in my opinion is acute mercury poisoning as she wasn't ill before having fillings). She is the one I can talk to mostly about my problems though as she understands more. My sister gets really frustrated with me. But I think it's because it hurts her to have to deal with it. She wants me to be normal, and I can't help that I have these problems. I'm doing what I can to try and get better. I feel for her, though, and wish I didn't get so anxious - like when we were on holiday I made her get off the bus because I couldn't cope on it anymore. I was having a serious panic attack as the guy behind me kept saying the wheels were going to fall off (it was an old bus) and I just couldn't cope. For the rest of the night she was in the mood with me and said I was selfish and so forth. It really doesn't help my self-esteem when I felt really bad already for having to get off the bus. I now have a phobia of buses aswell. I feel sick if I have to go on one.


That is terrible. I'm sorry for all your suffering. I don't blame my dentist for what she did to me as I really don't think she believed it was poisonous. This was almost 20 years ago. As to dentists now who continue to use amalgam despite something like 60,000 cases of poisoning from the fillings, I am a lot less charitable. They at least owe it to their patients to inform them that amalgam contains mercury and there are those who believe the fillings are toxic. But they don't even do that, at least not most anyway.


I am the same. I haven't had a period now for almost 2 years. They say I have PCOS, but that's only because they didn't know what was wrong with me and the specialist said "it's probably that" - but she didn't know, so she guessed. I have never been in a relationship because I don't know how to cope with it. I would like to be, but I am a little phobic of it because I can't cope with another person in my life shouting at me or making me feel bad for all my phobias. If I had a supportive partner, it would be nice, but I very rarely meet compassionate people. Usually, within an hour, I have got on peoples nerves because I'm a handful. I mostly keep to myself. My stress levels are lower then because I can do what I like and there's no one to have to think of. The trouble is it's isolating and lonely, so it's not a good thing to do, but the less stress in my life the better. But I would like to be married, if I could find someone who wants me around that long, and I somehow doubt anyone will. I try to stay positive, though, that I can get better when the fillings are out. I'm 30 now and maybe by the time I'm 40, I will be a lot better, and these days that's not old <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />


I ultimately blame the government. Amalgam has been banned in several European countries (Sweden and Austria come to mind) so there's no reason why it can't be banned in our respective countries either. I wish it would be.


You too! Having any health problem is sad, but when the conditions have been inflicted by an ignorant medical/dental community, then it's a tragedy. I'm really sorry for all your pain and hope you get better <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />