Hypnotherapy For
OCD

(Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)

Mental Health Professional And Clinic

Hypnotherapy Helping Unordinary People
Lead An Ordinary Life

Treating Obsessive Compulsive Disorders in Singapore!

OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) is a very extreme form of anxiety disorder which manifests with an unwanted pattern of moderate to extreme thoughts (obsessions), which are linked to certain fearful outcomes that may occur if you do not perform a certain set or sets of behaviours (compulsions) repetitive rituals. These obsessions and compulsions progressively interfere with daily activities as the condition progresses and these can cause you significant distress.

Unfortunately, there is no one-off method to fix this condition and anyone who suggests it is an easy fix (quite familiar with some hypnotists), is being less than honest or really doesn't fully understand OCD! People may try to ignore or stop their obsessive thoughts but that, for many, only increases their distress and anxiety. Ultimately, you are driven to enact compulsive acts to try to ease your stress. OCD is akin to an inverse form of classical conditioning, wherein a lab rat is exposed to a physical stimulus, a shock, and simultaneously it is paired with an auditory stimulus, a bell.

Hypnotherapy For OCD

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Eventually, the bell takes on the properties of shock and the rat enters fight or flight when exposed to the bell. In OCD, the thought is akin to a shock and the behaviour (ritual) is like a relief valve (the inversion). No matter how much we try to ignore the thoughts or urges, they persist. Mostly this is because we are trying to override an emotional system response, to an emotionally driven phenomenon.  This often leads to more ritualistic behaviours, simply because the emotional brain will override logical cognitive processes.

OCD tends to follow certain ritualistic behaviours around specific themes — for example, an overwhelming fear of being contaminated by bacteria or germs. To ease these fears, one compulsively washes their hands, often until they are extremely sore.

OCD, often leads to other forms of psychological stress, as a consequence of being judged, ashamed or embarrassed about their behaviour, nevertheless, treatment, especially Hypnosis,  can be effective because it deals with the emotional aspect of the condition.

Treating OCD with hypnotherapy is assessed on a person-by-person basis, simply because we are all different. However, the emotional and defensive systems in our brain that activate the fight or flight response are almost identical and not just for humans. That is why animal studies have given us so much insight into how anxiety develops. So, I start treatment with a view to lessening levels of anxiety that are not specifically related to your OCD. You may feel that you do not have any anxiety that is not related to OCD but let me assure you, you very much do! 

In order to begin your journey toward a life without unnecessary anxiety, you can book a Free 1hr Consultation Right Here

OCD Makes You Stand Out!

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The Official DSM_V Criteria for OCD

It is worth highlighting the diagnostic criteria for OCD, although one of the difficulties in diagnosis, is that many of the conditions, in a mild form, are actually quite normal experiences for many people who may just be over-anxious. Maybe a quick look through could give you some insight into how you are faring.

1.. Presence of obsessions, compulsions, or both: Obsessions are the recurrent and persistent thoughts, urges, or images that are intrusive and cause distress or anxiety. Compulsions are the repetitive behaviours or mental acts that a person feels compelled to do to relieve the anxiety caused by the obsessions.


2. The individual attempts to ignore or suppress the obsessions or compulsions or to neutralize them with some other thought or action (i.e., by performing a compulsion).

3. The obsessions or compulsions are time-consuming (taking up more than one hour per day) or cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

4. The disturbance is not attributable to the physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or another medical condition (e.g., head trauma).

5. The disturbance is not better explained by the presence of another mental disorder (e.g., panic disorder with agoraphobia, separation anxiety disorder, body dysmorphic disorder, trichotillomania [hair-pulling], skin picking disorder, hoarding disorder, autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder).

Hypnotherapy Gets To The Source Of The Problem

Obsessional symptoms and rationale

Obsessions often have themes to them, such as:

1.  Fear of contamination or dirt
2.  Doubting and having difficulty tolerating uncertainty
3.  Needing things orderly and symmetrical
4. Aggressive or horrific thoughts about losing control and harming yourself  or others
5. Unwanted thoughts, including aggression, or sexual or religious subjects
Examples of obsession signs and symptoms include:

a. Fear of being contaminated by touching objects others have touched
b. Doubts that you've locked the door or turned off the stove
c. Intense stress when objects aren't orderly or facing a certain way
d. Images of driving your car into a crowd of people
e. Thoughts about shouting obscenities or acting inappropriately in public
f.  Unpleasant sexual images
g. Avoidance of situations that can trigger obsessions, such as shaking hands

Compulsive symptoms and rationale

As with obsessions, compulsions typically have themes, such as:

1. Washing and cleaning
2. Checking
3. Counting
4. Orderliness
5. Following a strict routine
6. Demanding reassurance

Examples of compulsion signs and symptoms include:


a. Hand-washing until your skin becomes raw
b. Checking doors repeatedly to make sure they're locked
c. Checking the stove repeatedly to make sure it's off
d. Counting in certain patterns
e. Silently repeating a prayer, word or phrase
f. Arranging your canned goods to face the same way
g. Severity varies

Without Causation, There Is No Problem!

Causes
The cause of an obsessive-compulsive disorder aren't yet understood, although the main theories include:

Biological. causes may result from changes in your body's natural chemistry and/or brain function, e.g. diet or hormones
Genetics. you may have genetic components, although, as of yet, no specific genes have been identified.
Learning. Obsessive and compulsive behaviours can be learned through observation, mostly at a young age but also by observing significant family members and/or progressively learned over time.

Risk factors
Factors that can increase the risk of developing or triggering obsessive-compulsive disorder include:

Family history. 
Parents or other close family members with the disorder can increase your risk.

Stressful or traumatic events. 
If you've experienced traumatic or stressful events, your risk could increase. Such an experience may, for some reason, trigger the intrusive thoughts, rituals and emotional distress characteristic of OCD.

Other mental health disorders. 
OCD may be related to other mental health disorders, such as anxiety disorders, depression, substance abuse or tic disorders.

Problems resulting from an obsessive-compulsive disorder may include:
An excessive amount of time can be spent engaging in ritualistic behaviours

Health issues, such as contact dermatitis from frequent hand-washing
Difficulty attending work, school or social activities

Challenges in close and/or necessary relationships, e.g. work, social, romantic

Overall poor quality of life
Suicidal thoughts and behaviour, both active and passive suicidal ideation

Is Hypnotherapy A Solution?

While hypnotherapy has an impressive record for helping clients overcome or at the very least, greatly lessen the deleterious effects of OCD, it still remains a case-by-case situation. It will always be the case that a client with OCD, will have other forms of anxiety, i.e. the possibility of having variant to full forms of panic disorder, PTSD/complex PTSD, social, and, generalised types too. The crossover of the symptoms of many types of anxiety can be marginal, to say the least. This is why I like to treat the variant (non-OCD) types of anxiety prior to treating OCD itself.

How hypnosis and hypnotherapy could help you get your life back, somewhat depends on how you experience hypnosis. This is the very reason I provide a full 1-hour consultation, which includes a demonstration of clinical hypnosis so that you can make an informed decision as to whether my hy[notherapy services will work for you.
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