I want to overcome my malpractice of excessive masturbation and OCD. Are motivation and will power enough as a tool to overcome these? Actually, in this situation being a part of the conservative society it becomes very hard to share it with parents and to make it to the doctor. That's why I preferred the online consultation mode.

Dr. Saul PereiraPsychologist46yrs exp

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Motivation and willpower and dedication will help overcome any situation. Masturbation is not really bad; it is the addiction to it that is bad. Not even the number of years is a problem but the frequency and compulsiveness to do it is to be considered for its ill-effects. At your age you may feel it difficult and it can become addictive if you have alone time, if you obsess about it, and if you are not into relationships. The problem with addiction to this is that you may go on to prefer masturbation to heterosexual contact, even when you are married. That obviously would be an insult to your wife and will lead to a lot of conflict. Heterosexual contact is very wholesome and the physiology is made exactly for penile and vaginal contact. You will instead enjoy a poor replica of this and not know or care for the difference. The second thing that can happen with addiction is that it will become compulsive and will have no boundaries or limits, since it can be done all by yourself, whenever, wherever, and however too. The big problem a lot of children get into is the guilt around this. A useful way to discharge the energy is to get into contact games, or exercises, or even hobbies to channelize it. Also you should not spend too much time alone, and you need to keep your mind occupied with other interesting things and a lot of socializing. Even if you are not interested in marriage, for whatever reasons, it will help you to get into a friendship with a girl and enjoy the relationship where there will be a lot of excitement when you fall in love. Right now your hormones may be very active and your physiological apparatus is primed and ready for sexual stimulation. But because of your age and even otherwise it is important to develop good control and not feed into your impulses. Keeping yourself occupied and living a healthy social life are the keys to manage your sexual drives. As regards OCD, meet with a counselor first and then if that person recommends a psychiatrist to deal with this issue, do visit one as soon as possible. Please take your parents with you to determine the possible developmental issues that may have contributed to this condition. This is a fear-based condition and for some reason you have not been dealing with this childhood fear which has now developed unto these repetitive adaptations to seem to need it for normal functioning. The behavior will then become based on magical thinking and certain rituals will become necessary to do normal things making you believe that either the frequency or the ritual is important to its success. This of course is a fallacy but there will come a time that even if told the truth, your belief will defy any logic and you will continue behaving like that even if it cripples you in your daily routines. It only appears as though some other force is behind these behaviors and that you are compelled to act in this fashion. That is obviously not true but no one can convince you of anything different. The obsession is a repeating thought pattern with no meaningful outcome; and the compulsiveness is the need to act on those obsessions also in a repeated behavior pattern as though you just cannot help yourself, like the plucking off of your hair. There are certain behavioral techniques to be implemented and if they work you may get out of this condition rather easily. If that does not work as desired, then medication has to be introduced, and in combination with counseling much work can be achieved.  

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