Damian Ruiz
One of the main problems of people suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder is that the motive or object of the obsession (cleanliness, sexual orientation, aggressiveness, etc.) can change even after therapy if the psychological aspects of inhibition, guilt and/or fear are not released, transformed into spontaneity, self-esteem and security, to a sufficiently acceptable level to be able to live without obsessions.
For this to happen, it is first necessary to identify any negative life experiences that may have occurred, especially in childhood and/or adolescence, and to see how he/she reacted to them, what the environment was, what the personality and characterological factors were.
From there it is necessary to work on reconnecting with the vital desire and thus transforming these negative emotions into positive ones.
A fundamental factor for anyone who wants to feel better about their life, and essential for those who suffer from OCD, is to expand the field of consciousness.
What does this mean?
Most people operate within very narrow cognitive (thinking) parameters, with limiting beliefs, some bordering on superstition.
People, even with a scientific background, who combine facts in a rather illogical way, along the lines of “this is happening to me because I have not been good to…”.
The point is that the psychic field in which we live is an element to be taken into account in order to improve or overcome this disorder.
Let’s think of someone whose whole world revolves around the family, or the relationship with parents or one of them, or the moral conventions of a small and ultra-conservative environment, or superstitious beliefs linked to some religion, with a preconceived idea of what he or she is like and little possibility of overcoming it, or with a continuity of behaviour in relation to what his or her predecessors did. We could add an infinite number of beliefs which alone, without any kind of mental illness, would cause a permanent state of unhappiness.
That is why one of the strategies to follow for the patient is to open up a world of possibilities that are connected to their personality, their essence and their potentiality.
Living in a small universe without taking into account the possibilities offered by existence – different for each of us, but undoubtedly always greater than we think – is in a way a condemnation of the chronicity of what happens to us.
Therefore, instead of “picking over the same stone”, i.e. insisting on the symptom, the most important thing is to create a stimulating and extensive “inner space” in which the obsessive content can gradually lose weight and be diluted, for two fundamental reasons:
- The activation of instincts and positive emotions
- Opening up to new possibilities in life
This is something that can be worked on therapeutically, also with the help of external activities agreed upon with the patient (some kind of sport, creative function, etc.) and which, in most cases, if followed with perseverance, can contribute a lot to achieving the therapeutic objective.
One final point. Medication (prescribed by a psychiatrist) is in most cases necessary in the early stages of therapy, I personally believe in a crash plan (especially in severe cases) and then modulation and gradual reduction as the psychological treatment works.