​Obsessions in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Three important facts everyone should know

Obsessions in Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental health problem that is defined by the presence of Obsessions (the O) and Compulsions (the C). These two unique, but related, symptoms come together to form a pattern of behavior that may look healthy or innocent on the outside, but ultimately create a prison that traps sufferers in cycles of pain.

Here are a few key facts that everyone should know about OCD.

1. What are obsessions?

Obsessions are sometimes difficult to understand. This is because they are things that happen inside someone's mind, which means that other people can't observe or study them directly like you could if the problem were easily visible, such as if someone had a cut or a broken bone.

However, broadly speaking, obsessions are unwanted and intrusive thoughts, images, sounds, or impulses. The key to understanding what an obsession is is to understand what the person experiencing them doesn't like about them.

This is where therapy gets VERY customized to the person's issue and where good training on OCD treatment matters most. A very common example of this is when a person has "what if thoughts": "what if I say something horribly inappropriate" or "what if thinking about going crazy means I'm about to go crazy". 

Understanding what drives these thoughts can tell a therapist where to focus their treatment. For example, the thought "what if I say something horrible inappropriate" may tell the therapist that the person is fearful of judgment, failure, or rejection. This could be one area that a person needs to focus on to heal.

2. How are obsessions treated?

Since obsessions can be about anything, and treatment is customized, each person's therapy tasks will be different. However, there are some consistent tasks involved in a successful OCD treatment that everyone will have.

The most important of these is a gradual, stepped, and focused effort to confront, rather than avoid, obsessive thoughts.

You read that right, rather than try to NOT think about unwanted thoughts on purpose, the goal of a good OCD treatment is to help you think about them intentionally. Doing this can raise someone's anxiety TEMPORARILY (reread that last word as many times as you need to!), but also provide long-term relief.

3. How does treatment help?

What happens when someone avoids something, especially out of fear or guilt or disgust, is that they become overly sensitized to whatever they are avoiding. This is why, ironically, people who try to avoid thinking about something end up thinking about that thing more than if they just accepted their thought in the first place.

The solution to becoming overly sensitized is to become desensitized. This is accomplished in OCD treatment through repeat exposures to unwanted thoughts. Thinking about it another way, people become more comfortable with things they encounter over and over. This is especially true if that thing is something that is totally safe and harmless.

This is true for unwanted thoughts as well. Once someone with OCD confronts their thoughts, they learn that thoughts are just that: mental phenomena that don't really mean anything. By realizing that thoughts are less important than originally believed, those thoughts come up less and less often. Even when they do come up, they have very little power in that person's mind. This how someone goes from being obsessed to free in OCD treatment.

Getting the right help today

If you are thinking about addressing your, or your loved one's OCD, give us a call today for a free, no commitment consultation to find out if we can help.