Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is one of the most debilitating and difficult to treat mental health problem, it can cause extreme distress and can lead to other difficulties like clinical depression.
Usually, it takes years before the person realises that what causes their distress is in fact a recognised and treatable disorder, some people have more insight than others.
For example, someone may have intrusive thoughts about stabbing loved ones, the natural reaction would be to try to block the thought, push it away as it causes enormous distress, why? because that it the last thing this person would do, it is completely against their believes and values, hence the high levels of distress. The person may then engage in mental rituals eg praying, repeating phrases or in observable actions such as tapping objects, cleaning excessively, avoiding sharp objects etc.
In other words, obsessions increase anxiety, compulsions is what we do to to reduce or neutralise the anxiety. Over time, the person gets stuck in cycles where all they are doing is performing compulsions for most of their day.
Treatment for OCD normally involves psycho education on how compulsions exacerbate anxiety and distress, then Exposure and Response Prevention. In addition, interventions like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and EMDR have also proven effective to manage OCD.
I have had positive results with the above interventions, however, the treatment has been different for all my clients, some have benefited form only having ERP, some only EMDR and some with a combination of both ERP and EMDR and a bit of ACT thrown in.
Sanctuary Therapy Centre 