I have this somewhat of a problem too but I think I got it control in sort of an odd way:
I would record my before and after weight using a digital scale every time I urinated and track it with nomie, Keeptrack or other tracking apps. It wasn’t unusual for me to pee out 10 lbs or more a day of liquid. I had a bad habit of drinking every time after I would go to the bathroom so I delay that more now. Even if you just keep track of the number of times you go to the bathroom each day it might work too. This method hasn’t been clinically studied so I have no idea if it actually works for others. On average I urinate about 1-1.5 lb of liquid which is roughly a half liter of water. It probably isn’t good for us to urinate out more than 4-8lb each day.
Also it helps to start getting in the habit of slow sipping instead of gulping. My meds cause a lot of dry mouth and I usually want immediate relief but if I take my time more eating and drinking it helps more. I still have problems with eating too fast when I am not aware.
Yeah dry mouth from meds doesn’t help us. Keeping a log is interesting to me. It forces you to use the logical side of your brain, and it takes the emotional “fun” out of drinking so much.
Smoking, schizophrenia, and drinking fluids compulsively all correlate with each other. I swear I was getting a dopamine kick from the cold water I would drink. Although I’ve yet to read about that…
I was at about 8 litres a day. I cured it by drinking LOTS of salt and Dioralyte and am down to about 3 litres now.
Drinking too much water makes you pee out too much sodium in your urine and the resulting sodium deficiency causes even more thirst. A way to cut down the craving for water is to up your blood sodium levels by taking in LOTS of salt.
Keep an eye on your blood pressure while consuming lots of salt. As long as your blood pressure doesn’t increase too much then the salt is perfectly safe.
I had the sodium deficiency and was getting Charlie horses all over. Even inside my chest. I know this thing can cause cardiac arrest, and I know the heart is a muscle, so it was a wake up call. I think I’m safe now, but I noticed somewhere that there is a tendency for relapse. So people like us have to stay vigilant.
I think too much sodium makes me more thirsty plus it increased my edema and blood pressure. I track sodium now too and keep it about 2400mg as often as I can. It’s good to get potassium too to balance it out.
I happen to also have alcoholism as a trait. It might matter bc I think I was mimicking the high in a way. I would get myself wired with coffee. And then turn to water drinking to come down. The water had a soothing effect like alcohol can. I felt like getting descriptive bc alcoholism also correlates with Polydipsia.
WHY? Why drink so much water? Water intoxication is real but rare. There is a silly urban legend about eight glasses of water a day. Never made sense. Ignore it. Drink “litres”??? If this is OCD, then look for cognitive behaviour therapy from a psychologist. If you have urinary stones, consult a nephrologist.