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OCD (or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) is the name given to a particular routine or behaviour which an individual feels compelled to carry out. Examples include a desire to wash one’s hands a number of times or to repeatedly check that a door is locked before walking away from the house. Often individuals suffering from OCD will have developed specific thinking patterns to justify the obsession, such as an irrational  belief that a loved one will get hurt unless a particular obsession is followed.

In essence, OCD operates as a coping mechanism for high anxiety. Through our evolution as a species, anxiety has evolved to keep us safe from danger and, at a time when threats to our existence were clearly defined, anxiety worked well. However within recent human history threats to our existence are far less frequent. Therefore the evolved anxiety response is needed far less. We still feel anxious, but have no way to express this anxiety as we have no wild animals to slaughter or neighbouring tribes to kill. To compensate for this, our unconscious minds often create a method whereby we can express our anxiety. This method is OCD. If an individual feels anxious then the illusion of having to wash their hands a number of times is created by their unconscious mind in order to express this anxiety.

Like all illusions created by the unconscious mind, it works in the short term yet is counter productive in the long term. This is because, for the mechanism to still work, the method needs to become more and more convoluted. To begin, an individual may control their anxiety by checking the front door is locked however, over time, this can evolve into the individual needing to repeatedly check that the cooker is turned off or engage with other ritualistic behaviours.

In a hypnotherapy consultation to remove OCD, my primary focus is to use hypnosis to remove any anxiety which the client may be experiencing at that stage in their life. It is by removing this anxiety, and getting the client to feel completely calm, the the need to have an obsession disappears naturally.

Also, when required, I use hypnosis to remove any tendency to think irrational thoughts which may exist in order to justify the ritualistic behaviour.

If you suffer from OCD, then please contact me for further information.

Maidstone

Hypnotherapy

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