If you suffer with obsessive compulsive disorder, you are familiar with intrusive anxiety causing thoughts. What is most disturbing about these unwanted thoughts is the lack of control you have over them.  These negative automatic thoughts create anxiety, which in turn compels a behaviour to relieve that anxiety.   Unfortunately the relief gained from the behaviour is short-lived and so the cycle continues as shown in the diagram below.

Obsessions generally begin with intrusive thoughts that cause anxiety and in order for the person to feel a sense of safety or relief they are compelled to perform a behaviour i.e. a compulsion.

About 1 in 50 people or 2-3% of the population suffer with OCD.  It affects men and women equally and usually begins before the age of 25.

Many celebrities have helped people seek treatment by discussing the implications of living with OCD and how it can interfere with everyday activities, commitments and relationships.

From Obsessive Hoarding to Compulsive Hand Washing

OCD is characterised by obsessions or compulsions or both.  OCD can take many different forms and are broadly categorised into obsessions and compulsions as follows:

Categories of Obsessions:

• Aggressive obsessions – unwanted urges of causing harm
• Contaminations obsessions – fears that people or objects may be contaminated
• Sexual obsessions – unwanted sexual thoughts or fears about sexual orientation
• Hoarding/saving – obsessive collection and retention of materials
• Religious obsessions – intrusive religious blasphemous thoughts or compulsive praying
• Need for symmetry or exactness
• Somatic obsessions – including hypochondria or body appearance

Categories of Compulsions:

• 
Washing and cleaning – excessive hand washing, showering, cleaning
• 
Checking – preventing dangers, checking and rechecking locks and appliances
• 
Repeating rituals – unwanted urges to repeat specific behaviours
• 
Counting – doing something or checking something a specific number of times
• 
Ordering and arranging – having specific rules about the way things should be
• 
Mental rituals or other forms of counting and checking

Hypnotherapy and psychotherapy is an effective treatment available for those suffering with the debilitating effects of anxiety related OCD.  The aim of the approach used in hypno-psychotherapy is to address the cause of the anxiety and to interrupt the continual looping that is overriding the brain’s frontal thinking cortex.  This looping referred to is shown in the circular diagram.  For more information and booking contact me, Sinead Duffy, Clinical Hypnotherapist and Psychotherapist at my clinic in Monaghan town.