ocdcounsellingsouthampton

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE DISORDER (OCD)

Counselling in Tenby, Pembrokeshire

INITIAL CONSULTATIONS ARE FREE

OBSESSIVE COMPULSIVE BEHAVIOUR

Sasha provides expert counselling for OCD on a face to face basis in Tenby, Pembrokeshire. Telephone and Skype sessions are also available if you are unable to come to the practice. With over 15 years experience of personal counselling and running groups for those with OCD, you can be assured that you will get results at Brighter Life.

In the meantime please enjoy the following free article which discusses OCD from a biological, psychological and psychosocial perspective, exploring the probable causes and innovative treatments available today.

If you would like to book a free consultation to find out how I can help you, please contact me and I will get in touch with you as soon as possible. You can also fill out this form if you are a professional who would like to attend a workshop on treating OCD.

The obsessive part of OCD involves intrusive and persistent thoughts about something terrible happening, that lead to feelings of panic, fear and anxiety. These thoughts and feelings are accompanied by an insatiable urge to perform a compulsive behaviour or mental act e.g. washing or counting, which has been associated with preventing the 'something terrible’ happening, and relieving the unbearable anxiety. Hours can be spent each day simply warding off anxiety, and having to repeat rituals over and over leads to a marked lack of freedom in life. People with OCD are caught in a series of loops consisting of cortical activation in the brain that accompanies and maintains OCD, to a loop of obsessions, compulsions and responses that must be replayed and obeyed everyday. The film Groundhog Day often strikes a chord!

Imagine for a moment holding the belief (whilst knowing fully that it is illogical) that you or your loved ones will be harmed in some way or even killed if an action is not performed. An overwhelming feeling of terror, fear, panic and anxiety is kept alive by overactive regions in the brain, and knowing logically that tapping your steering wheel ten times has no impact on whether your child will die today, has no impact on this overactivity.

Some have to repeat their car journey to convince themselves they have not harmed an animal or person. Others need to wash themselves red raw until they ‘feel’ that they are clean and decontaminated. Checking appliances are off and doors are locked tens or hundreds of times a day is another common experience. Hoarding, having an excessively tidy home, repetitive intrusive thoughts, a belief that thoughts will come true, analysing conversations over and over, body dysmorphic disorder and hypochondria are other ways in which OCD can be experienced. The elaborate behavioural (washing hands, checking etc) or mental rituals (counting, symmetry, speaking certain words) are self-comforting and reduce anxiety by switching off the overactive brain loop.

Whilst most of us live easily with some uncertainty, for people with OCD uncertainty can become unbearable. We have all had the experience of forgetting whether we have turned an appliance off or locked the back door, but even if we feel a need to go and check, we are not forced to do so immediately by an overwhelming feeling of anxiety. If we are at home we might check once and be satisfied, or if we are away from home we might not bother to go back, hope that all will be okay and the thought and worry will leave us. For people with OCD however, their brain is stuck on high alert and their attention is continually drawn to the possibility of a catastrophic event happening as a result of something they have thought, done, or not done, and neither checking once or forgetting is an option.

I offer a combination of all the treatments discussed above, contact me now for a free initial consultation.

Sasha also provides talks on the treatment of OCD and other mental health issues to mental health staff, therapists and NLP practitioners. Contact us HERE for further details.

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