Is there light at the end of the tunnel?.... the answer is YES, because OCD is treatable and curable.
This week is the OCD Week of Action, to encourage people who are suffering from the symptoms of OCD to seek help and support.
It’s to highlight OCD and to
make aware the debilitating nightmare that one suffers every minute of
their waking lives. The anxiety associated with OCD can make a
person’s life an absolute misery, some people feel total despair which
can trigger a person to self harm or worse, just so as they can feel a
little relief from their suffering.The charity OCD Action says the condition has two main features: obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are involuntary thoughts, doubts, images or urges which cause anxiety, and compulsions are what you do to reduce the anxiety. Because carrying out a compulsion reduces anxiety, people with OCD get the urge to do it repeatedly.
This week’s blog is how Hypnotherapy can support people with OCD by tapping into their subconscious. OCD is fuelled by fear and terror so, in treating OCD, I shall be focusing on removing those feelings by de-conditioning the anxiety around not carrying out an OCD ritual.
Imagine this...
You wake up in the morning and the first thing you think of before your eyes are even open is ‘I feel dirty’, ‘I need to be clean or the germs will infect me’
You run the bath, but wait, you need to make sure the bath is clean and free from germs, so you continuously scrub the bath until you’re satisfied its clean, this can take up to half an hour or more…. Your stomach is churning as the anxiety is going up a notch, the bath is running, you have clean clothes, clean towels and everything is prepared ready for you when you come out. You get in the bath, fear is eating you up now because the germs are spreading and you need to be clean, so you start by washing your hair, your face, your neck and work your way down your body, meticulously scrubbing the germs of every part of you….. and then the anxiety becomes even more severe because all rational thought has gone from your mind, only fear, anxiety and loathing as you start the ritual all over again just in case you didn’t scrub hard enough to kill all those germs………. Finally, you get out of the bath, already your brain is shouting ‘Contamination’ … those involuntary thoughts doubts and uncontrollable urges are screaming at you … ..'get back in the bath’ but the bath water is now dirty, the bath tub is now dirty… what do you do….. the anxiety is almost too much to bare….so you empty the bath tub, run and get another clean towel…….. scrub the bath for another half hour and then run the water, this time it’s even hotter just to be sure the contamination is scrubbed away……Once in the bath, you can begin to feel clean again, just for a few minutes before it starts all over again…. And then you ask yourself….when does it end???
OCD behaviours can be expressed differently in different people, but the underlying mechanism is the same.
This was a real case..... The misery this person went through every day for over ten years was, and it's unimaginable, but there is light at the end of his tunnel.... by removing the fear of the unknown, the fear of being un-clean and the fear of becoming contaminated cured his anxiety..... And how did Hypnosis do this?
Hypnosis changed his way of thinking so that he believed he had control of his own OCD.
Hypnosis changed his way of thinking so that he believed he had control of his own OCD.
This is very significant, as many OCD sufferers feel that THEY are being controlled by OCD.
The case above worked because Hypnotherapy can help to make the distinction between what OCD sufferers feel is true...for example, ‘my hands have become contaminated’ yet what is actually true is that ‘his hands were clean and not contaminated’...so, under hypnosis, his subconscious was re-conditioned to consciously think that his hands were clean and can be kept clean. Through suggestibility, his thoughts and feelings on an unconscious level took control of his OCD. He believed in himself and no longer feared dirt, germs or becoming contaminated, therefore he no longer felt obsessed so the anxiety and the compulsion were no longer felt by this person.
I’m very pleased and delighted to say that this person leads a normal, fruitful life and has just had a baby boy!!!!
So please, take the first step, visit your GP or other professional, maybe speak to a friend but do seek help. Whatever treatment you chose, OCD is treatable and curable, it may take a long time and an awful lot of patients…. But remember…………There is always light at the end of the tunnel.
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