The Mind Body Practice Issues

Are you preoccupied with anxiety producing thoughts on a daily basis?
Do you experience intrusive, sometimes violent, thoughts?
Do you take part in ritualistic behaviour, eg. constant hand washing?

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is an anxiety related condition where a person experiences frequent intrusive and obsessional thoughts, sometimes followed by repetitive impulses and urges. OCD causes the sufferer great distress and can impact negatively on various aspects of a person’s life including; relationships, career and self confidence, in the long term it can also lead to depression.

A sufferer will experience anxiety producing thoughts, in order to reduce the anxiety the person will employ specific behaviours and rituals. Some examples of the thoughts experienced could be;

• Worrying that something or someone is contaminated
• Worrying that everything needs to be arranged symmetrically
• Intrusive violent thoughts
• Worrying that something terrible will happen unless you check repeatedly

Some examples of the behaviours and rituals employed to alleviate the anxiety are;

• Obsessive hand washing
• Hoarding
• Excessive cleaning of clothes or home
• Mental rituals or thought patterns, such as saying a particular phrase or counting to particular number.

If you suffer from OCD, counselling can help by exploring with you the root causes of the behaviour and the intrusive thoughts. By identifying the thought triggers together with a therapist, self understanding and insight can be gained which can alleviate the anxiety and therefore end the repetitive impulses and urges.