What is Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)?

OCD is characterized by unbidden obsessive unwanted thoughts or urges and/or compulsory actions that are experienced as dysfunctional. The symptoms of OCD are intrusive by nature and impact on everyday life. It is an anxiety disorder. The majority of OCD conditions are attributable to emotional and developmental causes. The disorder can be complex. Some clients I have worked with don’t know why they do what they feel that they have to do, therefore they don’t know how to control it; other clients seem to understand the triggers, but even with that understanding, they were unable to change their behaviour. OCD behaviour can be very deeply embedded in the subconscious mind.

What Are the Common Symptoms of OCD?

When an intrusive thought becomes persistent and dominates in one’s thinking, physical activity needs to be carried out to temporarily quell the feelings of stress and anxiety. Some examples are:

• Handwashing: It can come from the idea of being dirty or fear of being “contaminated” by germs/bacteria.
• Unable to stop eating sweet foods, smoking cigarettes, or drinking alcohol.
• Nail-biting and hair-pulling: Even though they know it’s irrational, the urge to carry it out overwhelms them.
• A desire for symmetry
• Checking: Doors locked, taps on and off, etc.
• Hoarding
• Ruminations

What Causes OCD?

More often than not, OCD started at an early age. OCD behaviour can be an attempt to comfort the inner child and protect him/her from deep fears. These fears often originate in childhood where the client felt unprotected. OCD is a learned behaviour. They become repetitive and habitual when associated with relief from anxiety.

How Can Hypnotherapy Help with OCD?

OCD itself is a form of hypnosis. All my clients know that their OCD is irrational. Therefore instead of using regular talk therapy to work on the level where the problem is not at, it makes sense to use the tool of hypnotherapy – a new way of focusing the mind – to treat it.

• On the basic level, hypnosis provides deep relaxation, which helps to reduce the stress and anxiety of OCD clients.
• Hypnotic techniques enable a client to identify “OCD thoughts and urges” without identifying with them, so one can refrain from performing the associated compulsive behaviour.
• Hypnotherapy engages the subconscious mind by regressing back to the core cause of the OCD. Sometimes there was an original scene where one began to feel a certain way that they had to have compulsive behaviour. And some other times it could be something chronical.
• We are much more receptive in a hypnotic state for suggestions for ego-strengthening and extinguishing the anxiety.
• In hypnotherapy, we help the client to begin to love the inner child the same way you would love and heal any child who was harmed or betrayed by their caregivers. When healed on the deep subconscious level where the original traumatizing event occurred, the person is able to stop the OCD behaviour because the triggering event is neutralized of its power. Without the original event’s reservoir of fear and shame propelling it, the current triggering event has lost its commanding influence.
• A hypnotherapist can teach you self-hypnosis techniques to help manage stress and anxiety. This typically involves visualization and breathing techniques which you can call upon when you need to.

I still don’t like it when I see a jacket hanging on a hanger tilted, but it doesn’t mean I need to suffer until I see it straightened out. If you hate OCD but feel you can’t live without it, hypnotherapy might just be the right solution.

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146 WAYS HYPNOTHERAPY MIGHT HELP YOU

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