"It’s like you have two brains, a rational brain and an irrational brain and they’re constantly fighting" Emilie Ford
OCD is a condition which is caused by excessive levels of anxiety which can cause individuals to perform certain rituals. They are performed to rid the sufferer of worries or reduce the worries. However, for many sufferers the relief from carrying out these rituals is short lived before they are repeating the ritual again. Many sufferers can feel guilt, shame, or frustration in relation to rituals and unwanted intrusive thoughts. When you are under stress and anxiety, the primitive part of your mind (fight/flight) system can take control. As such, it can encourage and reinforce unhelpful behaviors. The more you worry about not engaging in the behavior the more you are compelled to do it again and the greater the anxiety manifests.
The rituals can manifest themselves in many ways, such as;
- Excessive hand washing
- Tapping things repeatedly
- Checking locks repeatedly
“Your thoughts are not you and the scenario they present is not true” Georgina Wilson
Obsessive repetitive disturbing negative thoughts, impulses and images that cause great distress and is both debilitating and exhausting. Maybe you worry continuously that some thought or action of yours might harm yourself or another person.
However, Solution Focused Hypnotherapy will help you start to think in a positive way, therefore, the intellectual part of your brain will start to control your thoughts and life. This will allow you to take control of your obsessions, not the other way around. Imagine a world where at last you can just shut the door to the bathroom, without obsessive hand washing, without repeatedly tapping objects in the bathroom. Imagine a life where you can lock the door to your home, without an hour of checking plugs, switching them on and off, over, and over, tapping objects in the kitchen/ lounge. No more counting endlessly over and over, no more driving your car back around the journey you have just taken because you are sure you might have hurt someone and knocked them down. No more listening to disturbing thoughts of how you might hurt yourself or others. Just opening your eyes every day, knowing you are safe and so are your loved ones. Knowing that you do not have to carry out these rituals to feel that everything will be ok. You are able trust yourself; you can be relaxed and confident, you can be the person you have always wanted to be. Free of rituals, free of the pain.
“OCD is like having a bully stuck inside your head and nobody else can see it” Krissy McDermott
Solution Focused Hypnotherapy can help individuals with OCD by changing the focus from the obsession to the reduction of anxiety which commands the thought patterns and rituals. It can help you learn to respond in more constructive ways to your stress triggers and gain lasting relief.
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