Obsessive Compulsive Behaviour - How To Deal With It?

Obsessive compulsive behaviour is a form of anxiety disorder in which unreasonable thoughts and fears, which are known as obsessions lead one to do repetitive compulsive behaviour. Root causes of obsessive compulsiveness are complex and often deep seated. The underlying emotional states may include the fear of unknown, not being in control, negative outcomes, failure, rejection, shame, annihilation or embarrassment. Many neurobiological factors have been implicated including alterations in some neural circuits and abnormalities of neurochemicals.

One can manage mild obsessions and compulsions easily, whereas, severe obsessive compulsiveness require support of mental health professionals.

The treatment for obsessive compulsive behaviour depends on the severity, which is reflected by how much the condition is affecting the daily life of the person. There are two main treatments. First is a set of psychotherapy techniques. The most well studied of these techniques is cognitive behavioural therapy, which involves several cognitive techniques as well as behavioural techniques like graded exposure and response prevention.

The cognitive behaviour therapy emboldens one to face one's fear and let the obsessive thoughts occur without neutralising them with compulsions. During the sessions, one works with therapist to break down the problems into their separate parts like physical feelings, thoughts and actions. The therapist encourages you to face your fear and let the obsessive thoughts occur without acting on them. There are several simple cognitive techniques that one can use to control obsessive thoughts. Few examples are 1) Providing yourself strong signals known as anchor codes 2) Thought stopping techniques 3) Distraction techniques 4) Relaxation exercises 5) Self-statements etc.

Behavioral techniques involve exposure to the dreaded phenomena and prevention of subsequent response. People with mild to moderate behaviour usually need about 10 hours of therapist treatment, combined with exercises to be done at home between sessions. Those with moderate to severe symptoms may need a more intensive course of therapy that lasts longer than 10 hours. These exposure exercises need to take place many times a day, and need to be done for one to two hours without engaging in compulsions to undo them. It starts with construction of hierarchy of anxiety-provoking events. Then exposure is started with the situations that cause the least anxiety. Once you have one exposure task, you can move on to a more difficult task, until you have overcome all of the situations that make you anxious.  It is important to remember it can take several months before a treatment has a noticeable effect. It is extremely vital to remember that no one is perfect, nor can anyone recover perfectly.  Even in well-maintained recoveries, people can occasionally mess up and forget what they are supposed to be doing. People with Obsessive compulsive behaviour find that when they confront their anxiety without carrying the compulsion, the anxiety goes away. Each time, the chances of anxiety reduce and last for a shorter period of time. 

In the second case, treatment is by medication to control one's symptoms by altering the balance of chemicals in the brain. The medications have to be strictly taken under the observation of a psychiatrist.