Psychoanalysis

As mentioned previously, in OCD (and a lot of other mental illnesses) it’s the thoughts that cause the emotional distress. Therefore, if you want your OCD to stop permanently, you have to stop the thoughts

This chapter shows the possible underlying causes of OCD thoughts, and also how to fix those underlying causes

However, you won’t be able to fix those underlying causes if your anxiety levels are too high at the moment. To get your anxiety down to more reasonable levels go the section on CBT, which shows how to reduce your anxiety significantly in the short run

The main focus of this section is a school of therapy called psychoanalysis. This is the best type of therapy to cure OCD (in the long run), as it looks for its root causes. As part of its search for the root cause, it doesn’t suffer from a flaw that cognitive therapy does. The flaw that cognitive therapy suffers from is its assumption that if you get malfunctioning thoughts, the fault lies entirely in the mind. For almost every OCD sufferer this isn’t true

CBT ignores the link between the body and the mind. If the body is unable to function properly due to things such as trauma or self-esteem issues, it can lead to malfunctioning thoughts in the mind. This is the basis of psychoanalysis

I will now elaborate how the body can impact the mind

It is the brain that performs the physical actions needed for the proper running of the body (under instructions from the subconscious mind)

There are many issues that prevent the brain from being able to take these needed actions. These issues can be broadly categorised into two types:

(1) Issues that are too complex for the brain to fix by itself
(2) The brain’s capacity to fix easy problems is severely hindered because it has to spend too much time generating the stress response or the fight or flight response

Below I give specific examples for each of these two categories. There is a good chance you suffer from at least one issue from each category. Please read all of the examples, especially about trauma, even if you think you don’t suffer from it

Issues that are too complex for the brain to fix by itself

(a) Thyroid Gland Issue
(b) Trauma
(c) Genetics

(a) Thyroid Gland Issue

When you get OCD the first thing your doctor will do is test if you have a thyroid gland issue. The thyroid gland produces hormones that help regulate the body's metabolism. If it stops working properly, it can cause OCD (and other mental illnesses)

(b) Trauma

If you ask OCD sufferers if they have suffered trauma in their lives, most will say no. This is because they think trauma only refers to major things such as the experiencing of violence or being involved in a car crash.

However, if a person experiences minor trauma that occurs over a long time period, it can add up to major trauma. For example, if both parents work long hours and are unable to spend much time with their child, over time that child will feel traumatised, as they are missing out on care from their parents.

In the body there is a metaphorical bucket where all the trauma a person suffers is stored. If this bucket gets too full the subconscious mind needs to raise an alarm. It can do this by generating OCD thoughts. Therefore, OCD can be the subconscious mind’s way of alerting the conscious mind that the trauma bucket is too full, and so the conscious mind needs to take steps to process the trauma

Trauma is such a deep topic, it’s not possible to cover it adequately in a website about OCD. Its likely everyone has some trauma, even if you think you don’t. The only issue is, is your trauma bucket full or not. Once again, I recommend seeing a therapist/psychologist about this, as resolving trauma can be a very painful emotional experience. An individual cannot normally resolve trauma by themselves

If you want to start looking into trauma without the aid of a therapist/psychologist, then any book or YouTube video by Dr Gabor Mate would be a good start. He is a world-renowned expert in trauma

(c) Genetics

Some people think if their parents have OCD, they will get it too. Over the last 30 years or so, a new field of science has emerged that disputes this claim. That field is called epigenetics, which is concerned with how cells control gene activity. The key thing for OCD is that if a child only suffers minimal stress in their lives, they may never end up inheriting OCD. The OCD gene is only switched on when the cells cannot function properly, and the main reason for this poor functioning is stress

Epigenetics is a fascinating area, and if you want a good introduction to the subject, you should get a book from the epigenesist Dr Bruce H Lipton, called ‘The Wisdom of your cells’. It is aimed at the general reader, so you don’t have to be a scientific expert to understand it

As a side note, some people erroneously think that if they and their siblings have OCD, then it must be genetic. This is not true in all cases, as OCD can be learnt. For example, if the mother of the siblings is scared of contamination, she can drum this contamination fear into her kids

If you are sure that your OCD is genetically inherited, then it’s unlikely you will fully recover from OCD (i.e. you will get OCD thoughts for the rest of your life). However, by using ERP, you can get to a stage where the OCD thoughts only cause minimal anxiety, so you can still function at a high level, and enjoy a good quality of life

Keep yourself updated about the latest findings in epigenetics, in the future they may find a way to switch off the OCD gene

The brain’s capacity to fix easy problems is severely hindered

One of the things that the brain does is replace dying cells with new ones. This task is easy for the brain. However, it stops doing this function when it has to generate the stress response. Now, if the stress response is activated only occasionally, the brain can make up for anything that is missed by doing overtime. But, if the stress response is being generated regularly, then it cannot do this, as there is too much for it to make up

The following are common reasons why the stress response is being generated regularly

a) Irrational Self-Beliefs (self-Esteem)
b) Irrational Beliefs about the world
c) Stress that is real
d) Neurodivergence

Irrational Self-Beliefs (self-Esteem)

Everyone has beliefs about themselves. For example, whether they think they are a kind person or if they think are intelligent. What is not well known is that a person can hold two contradictory self-beliefs about the same thing!! How can this be? Well, remember self-beliefs are just thoughts that have become entrenched. And as we know, thoughts come from two different parts of the mind – conscious and subconscious.

The conscious mind can have one self- belief, for example, they are good at their job. The conscious mind will form this self-belief by looking at the evidence e.g. they regularly meet their deadlines, and they get good marks at their year-end review.

The subconscious mind can think that the same person is bad at their job. The subconscious can form a general self-belief during early childhood that they are incompetent at most things. So, when they are older and have to go to work, the subconscious assumes that they must be bad at their job.

So the brain is getting contradictory messages from the two-parts of the mind. How does it decide which one is true ?

The brain trusts the subconscious, as it is the subconscious that keeps the body running.

Therefore, generally speaking, it is your subconscious mind that controls your emotions.

Once the subconscious forms a self-belief, it only looks for things that confirm that self-belief, and completely ignores evidence that contradicts it. So, if the boss of the person praised that person for doing a really good job on a task, the subconscious mind would ignore that. If on the other hand, the person made a slight mistake, perhaps misspelling a word in an email, the subconscious would say ‘see, I told you you were crap at your job’.

The subconscious would then also generate a negative emotion, perhaps stress, or embarrassment, which would make the person feel bad.

And after a while of feeling stressed or embarrassed, that person’s brain will be acclimatised to looking out for the ‘danger’ of being discovered that they did a bad job, and so they will be regularly/continuously anxious at work. This is very bad for the functioning of the body, as when a person is anxious, the brain stops doing important things like replacing dying cells.

As a side note, in addition to being a possible cause of OCD, the poor functioning of the body can also have devasting long-term impacts. Recent studies suggest that people who suffer too much anxiety and stress in their life are more likely to get things like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease later in life.

In the world of CBT (therapy), these self-beliefs are sometimes called ‘core beliefs’.

Before an individual can fix these irrational self-beliefs, they first have to establish what they are

It is difficult for a person to know what they are, as the self-beliefs sit in the subconscious mind, which the person cannot directly ask or interrogate. Due to this difficulty, I highly recommend seeing a therapist/psychologist about this. These therapists/psychologists know which questions to ask that will pull out these irrational self-beliefs.

If you are unable to see a therapist/psychologist about this, then you could try to figure out your irrational self-beliefs by using the following method

Below is a list of common irrational self-beliefs. On a piece of paper, write down each self-belief and then think of situations in your life that caused you emotional distress. Then try to figure out if the emotional distress relates to one of those self-beliefs

I am not good enough
I am a disappointment
I am incompetent
I am don’t belong
I am a failure (will fail)
I have to be perfect

The method is

a) write down each self-belief on a piece of paper
b) think of situations in your life that caused you emotional distress and write them down on the paper
c) for each situation, think about why you got the emotional distress. Typically, there is a top-level reason e.g. to avoid being criticised. But this top-level reason is not enough, you need to keep drilling down until you get to the underlying self-belief. For example, if you are too caring, ask yourself why. The answer could be because you need validation from other people. Then continue this line of questioning by asking yourself ‘why do I need validation from other people’. The answer to this question might be because you have the irrational self-belief that ‘I am not good enough’

Essentially, keep asking the ‘why’ question until you get to one of the irrational self-beliefs

For example, for the word ‘caring’, if there is a problem in your family are you the person everyone else looks to, to solve the issue? If so, does solving this issue have too much of a negative impact on your mental/physical health? If it does, then it could be that you are too caring. So, why are you too caring? It could be you need validation from others, which ultimately suggests you have the irrational self-belief that ‘you are not good enough’

Another of the words is ‘Unhappy’. Many individuals get sad when they go on social media, as others post pictures of their ‘perfect life’, and the individual thinks why is my life not as good as that? The individual’s conscious mind knows that those pictures are not representative of real life, but the subconscious ignores that, and instead thinks everyone else’s lives are better, and this end ups generating unhappiness for the individual. That individual may then think the reason why my life is not better is because ‘I am not good enough’, which leads to more misery

In the above two examples the irrational self-belief is that the person is not ‘not good enough’, however there are many more irrational self-beliefs. This is why it is good to see a therapist/psychologist, as they know what all of them are, and also know how to get them out of you

Once you have figured out what your irrational self-beliefs are, you can then start to figure out how to correct them

Correcting these self-beliefs takes time, possibly years. There are two things that you need to do. The first is to start challenging these self-beliefs. Cognitive therapy can help with this. The second thing is to change your behaviour, and behavioural therapy helps with this.

For changing your behaviour, a good place to start are the online resources of Peter Crone, who is known as the mind architect. There is an excellent video on YouTube where he talks about how the mind works and how to change its workings. The link to this video is below, but in case its location on YouTube changes, search for ‘The 5 STEPS To Unlock The POWER OF YOUR MIND Today! | Peter Crone & Rangan Chatterjee’

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnsUif-CzOg

Another person whose work may be of interest is Dr Joe Dispenza. I don’t agree with everything that he says, in particular his theory that you can get rich by just thinking about it. However, his explanation of how the mind and body get stuck in a pattern of behaviour could be useful

Irrational Beliefs about the world

In our subconscious, we hold beliefs about how the world should work. For example, if you treat someone nicely, they should treat you nicely. Unfortunately, the world does not always work like that. Your conscious knows this, but that’s almost irrelevant, as it’s our subconscious that controls our emotions, and so you will get still get the emotional hit despite knowing that its irrational. So, we need to change the beliefs in our subconscious

Below are some common irrational beliefs about the world that our subconscious holds

a) Unsafe
b) Unfair
c) Nice

Unsafe

If someone was murdered in the area you live, an individual may think it’s better to never go out alone, in case they are also murdered. This can lead to the irrational belief that whole world is dangerous, as murders are being committed in lots of places. The conscious mind knows that the probability of an individual being murdered is quite low, but the subconscious mind doesn’t look at things objectively, instead it may think it’s better to stay at home permanently. So, their quality of life seriously declines, and they may also end up getting a mental illness such as depression

Unfair

If you considered why most of the wars in the world take place, you would soon come to the conclusion that it is for the benefit of a tiny minority of the world’s population (i.e. the superrich). Many innocent people end up dying so that the superrich can get even richer or more powerful. This is profoundly unfair, and should be stopped

It is logical to feel sad about this unfairness. The issue comes when the sadness you feel is not proportional to the level of responsibility you have. That is, if you are just an ordinary person, you have little or no influence on whether a country goes to war, as all governments in the world (even the so-called democratic ones) are heavily influenced/controlled by the superrich. Therefore, you need to keep the sadness you suffer to a minimum, because you can’t do much about wars. But some people have the belief that it is their responsibility to stop wars. This results in them feeling sad all the time. If the brain is busy generating sadness, then it might not have enough capacity to fix the issues in the body. The individual needs to remove this irrational belief about the world from their subconscious mind.

Nice

Some drivers behave in a nice way when they drive their cars. For example, if they are driving in the main road, and there is a car in the side road, a nice driver would let that car in the side road come in (to the main road). But not all drivers are nice, and it is quite possible for the driver in the side road to have to wait ages before they are let into the main road. This can cause that driver frustration and annoyance. Once again, if the brain is generating needless negative emotions, then it has less time to fix issues in the body. The individual needs to change that belief

There are many more irrational beliefs about the world, most people don’t realise they have them. That’s why it’s good to see a therapist/psychologist about this issue

A final note on irrational beliefs about how the world should work, is that they are examples of cognitive dissonance i.e. one part of our mind (subconscious) holds an irrational belief but the other part (conscious) holds the opposite belief. This also applies to irrational self-beliefs mentioned earlier.

If you want learn more about the link between the body and the mind, two prominent modern-day psychoanalysts are Jonathan Shedler and Farhad Dalal.

Stress that is real

For the previous two examples (i.e. Irrational Self-Beliefs and Irrational Beliefs about the world) it’s not the situation that causes the anxiety/stress, it’s the individual’s belief about the situation that causes the actual anxiety/stress

But life can throw up situations where it’s not the person’s belief that is causing the issue, it’s the actual situation. For example, if you have a parent that has dementia or cancer, you are going to experience stress.

Therefore, I call this type of stress ‘real’, as the situation is a bad one, and so it is appropriate to get stressed

Below are some further examples of situations that cause real stress,

1) Serious Illness
2) Financial Difficulties
3) Working Long Hours
4) Relationship Issues
5) Bereavement

If you experience too much stress, the brain is less able to perform its function of keeping the body running efficiently. When this occurs, the subconscious can generate OCD thoughts, to alert the conscious mind that there is too much stress

Real stress is not possible to get rid of completely, as the situation that causes it is outside of your control (e.g. if your parent has dementia, you cannot fix that)

So, all you can do is find ways to reduce the stress. This could include things like:

1) Mindfulness (which I have written a section on)
2) Medication (see your doctor)
3) For people who believe in religion, remind yourself of the parts that deal with difficult situations e.g. in most religions, when someone dies, its only their body that dies, their soul is still alive, and perhaps it has gone to heaven

The next two topics on this page are the impact of modern technology, and separately, neurodivergent people

I wasn't sure if I should include these topics, as they are both just variations of stress. But modern technology has permeated almost every aspect of our lives, so I feel it would be helpful if I mentioned some of the negative aspects of it

Also, increases in medical knowledge have led to the discovery that there are a lot more neurodivergent people than we originally thought. It has been estimated that up to 20% of the UK population are neurodivergent. Added to this is the fact that neurodivergent people are particularly prone to anxiety issues, so it would be remiss of me to not mention something about neurodivergent people

Modern Technology

1) Mobile Phones
2) Computers/Laptops

Mobile Phones

· If people are constantly on the phone, it means the brain has less time to perform its duties of keep the body running smoothly

· The constant stream of notifications and updates can create a sense of urgency and a fear of missing out, leading to increased anxiety and stress

· Social media - It can contribute to feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. The tendency to compare oneself with others and the desire for validation through likes and comments can lead to a distorted self-image and feelings of worthlessness

· Mobile phones can cause sleep issues, in that at night time, your body will start winding down, but if you get a message on your phone from work, then your body’s routine is disrupted

Computers/Laptops

Advances in computing have made working from home a lot more common these days. This presents the following problems

· People tend to work longer hours when working from home, which causes more stress

· Possibility of the need to work harder during working hours. That is, when you are in the office, sometimes an issue you face is solved by simply overhearing a conversation that your work colleagues are having. When you work from home you don’t get that benefit

· Social Isolation - Extroverts in particular may find it difficult to work from home, as they need stimulation from other people to be happy. Even some introverts prefer to have some social contact during the week

· If an individual has to work from home on a day when the kids are also at home, it creates additional stress, as they have two conflicting demands

Even after people have switched off their computer/laptop off at the end of the working day, there is always the risk that they can get a call from their employer asking them to log on again, which creates extra stress

Neurodivergence

Neurodivergent people have brains that work differently from the average or “neurotypical” person. The way they learn, communicate and perceive their environment differs from the average person. Examples of neurodiverse conditions are autism and ADHD

So, how does a neurodivergent condition prevent the brain from ensuring the body works efficiently? Basically, they get additional stress compared to a neurotypical person. The additional stress includes feeling overly uncomfortable in social situations, or uncomfortable in sensory environments (e.g. when there are loud noises). They also prone to suffer more self-esteem issues, because the world is not always understanding of neurodivergent people

I just want to add a caveat before I finish this section. This is that no one can definitively say what the cause of OCD is for any individual. But I would be very surprised if some of the issues mentioned above aren’t the reason why you got OCD in the first place

The next section is on Mindfulness - please click the below button