Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Hypnotherapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder in Weybridge

Making Sense of OCD

You would normally hear or read about obsessive behaviours and disorders being linked with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which is a diagnosis widely used within the mental health profession.

However we have found it more helpful to separate compulsive behaviours from obsessive behaviours as their impact upon people’s lives and the way in which they are experienced is very different.

As a general rule, a compulsive behaviour is one that is undertaken, often with little thought, on impulse or with a sense of having been ‘driven’ to it, and instant relief is felt.

There may be some feelings of guilt or shame felt afterwards, but immediate gratification is felt at the time. (For more info on compulsive behaviours and disorders click here.)

For Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and behaviours, this sense of relief is often never achieved.

The person is likely to focus excessively on the issue at hand, often becoming totally preoccupied  by it; they can find themselves involved in repetitive cycles of behaviour which provide little or no relief, and sometimes activities are carried out to ensure something else (often something bad) does not happen.

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The types of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder that may be helped with Hypnotherapy

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder can range from simple everyday behaviours such as tidiness (e.g. placing all food tins in the cupboard with the label facing outwards) to counting numbers or doing sums in their head to the point that they can think of nothing else.

With all obsessional thoughts and behaviours, it is the degree to which the issue is preoccupying your time and/or limiting your life that is important.

For example, someone who worries about dirt or contamination may simply wash their hands carefully, maybe try and avoid using public toilets, or perhaps ensure they do not touch doors or handles in public toilets even if this means waiting a long time for someone else to open the door so they can nip through ‘untouched’.

However, place this same person under stress and they may begin to wash their hands obsessively and for some people this may become ritualistic to the point that their hands are never clean enough to leave their house.

The following list is certainly not exhaustive, but covers the more common Obsessive Compulsive Disorders and behaviours that we have been consulted for:

• Being overly jealous or possessive over a partner
• Eating issues (e.g. avoiding certain foods, anorexia)
• Constant worry about something
• Sleeping problems (e.g. insomnia)
• Paranoia
• Excessive exercise
• Continual negative thoughts
• Intrusive thoughts
• Constant counting
• Excessive tidiness
• Rituals (e.g. avoiding cracks in the pavement, multiple lock-checking routines)

Please do not be put off if your particular issue has not been identified in the list above: Obsessive Compulsive Disorders are so varied and often specific to the individual that it would be impossible to list them all here.

What is important to realise is that it is the underlying reasons for the behaviour that is significant and it is this that is treated with hypnotherapy or one of our Psychotherapy interventions, rather than the precise behaviours themselves.

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How Hypnotherapy & Psychotherapy could help with your Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

Many people who have obsessive thoughts and behaviours will try and hide them from others, perhaps thinking that people won’t understand or may judge them for it.

Here at the Weybridge Hypnotherapy Clinic we have many years of experience working with people to help them resolve their obsessive patterns of thinking and behaviour and you will find us to be open, friendly, helpful and completely non-judgmental in our approach.

We offer two main types of therapy for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder:

1) Cognitive Integration & Processing Therapy – This form of therapy is designed to help you put past experiences into the correct context, and to then “re-process” those experiences so that they are integrated properly in your mind. This re-processing can help you break the automatic behavioural patterns that lead to the emotional experiences you might suffer in the present day.

2) The Thrive Programme – This Cognitive Training programme can help you to identify and then modify “limiting Beliefs” that can keep you “trapped” in old ways of feeling and thinking. By doing so, you will be able to make significant improvements to the way you feel about yourself (your self-esteem) and also the degree to which you might worry about what others think of you.

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