Treating obsessive-compulsive disorder at home: how to get rid of obsessive thoughts?

Characteristics of the disease

The disease occurs in young people under 35 years of age and children. The onset of the disease does not have obvious symptoms, but lack of treatment can worsen the condition. According to statistics, every third person has encountered various forms of the disease. With some of them, getting rid of obsessive-compulsive neurosis on your own can be quite difficult.

Phobias can develop against the background of OCD. More often, residents of large cities are susceptible to them, regardless of their level of education, financial situation or status in society. It occurs in people who are not married and do not have a family. Individuals with high mental activity also suffer from OCD.

Once it occurs, the disease can disappear and appear again, so survivors should know about the rules for self-treatment of OCD.

Symptomatic picture

OCD refers to obsessive-compulsive disorder. There are 2 options for the development of the disease: obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions.

Obsession. The patient has obsessions and desires for no reason; he does not control their occurrence. Such thoughts change the essence of a person; he ceases to be responsible for his actions and follows their lead. Against this background, the patient begins to experience irritation and fear. Sometimes phobias arise. Unlike compulsion, such thoughts may remain unrealized.
Compulsion. It is an obsessive human behavior that has no logic; it is more like a ritual. Such actions and thoughts are repeated over and over again. The cause is obsession syndrome, which appears due to the predominance of feelings and emotions over the mind. The patient cannot resist them, although he understands that this is wrong. With the help of such actions, a person relieves feelings of anxiety and awkwardness. Trying to resist these thoughts leads to fighting with yourself, which can cause even more harm. This obsessive-compulsive disorder is self-treatable.

Four steps to free yourself from obsessive thoughts

From time to time, everyone experiences anxious thoughts or worries. But obsessive-compulsive disorder causes the brain to get stuck in a certain anxious thought, causing it to play again in the head. The following strategies will help you deal with this.

Keep a pencil handy, or type a journal on your laptop, smartphone, or tablet. When an attack begins, write down any thoughts or compulsions you have.

Continue writing as the calls continue so that you write down exactly what you are thinking, even if you repeat the same phrases or the same urges over and over again.
Writing all this down will help you understand how recurring obsessions are.
Writing down the same phrase or belief hundreds of times will help it lose its power.
Writing thoughts is much more difficult than just thinking about them, so obsessive thoughts are likely to go away sooner.

Instead of trying to suppress obsessions or compulsions, develop the habit of rescheduling them.

Choose one or two 10-minute “worry periods” each day, time that you can devote to obsessing. Pick a specific time and place (eg, in the living room from 8:00 to 8:10, 15:00 to 15:10) that is early enough that you won't have any anxiety before bed.
During periods of anxiety, focus only on negative thoughts or urges. Don't try to fix them. At the end of a period of anxiety, take a few calming breaths, allow the intrusive thoughts to pass, and return to your normal activities. The rest of the day should pass without obsessive ideas.
When thoughts arise throughout the day, write them down and “put them aside” for periods of worry. Save them for later and continue with your normal day.
Go to the “worry list” during the worry period. Reflect on thoughts or impulses you wrote down during the day. If thoughts still bother you, allow yourself to realize them, but only for the time you have allocated.

Focus on one specific concern or obsession, record it on a tape recorder, laptop, smartphone.

Retell the haunting phrase, sentence, or story exactly as it comes to mind.
Play the recording continuously for a 45-minute period each day until you feel that listening is no longer distressing.
By constantly facing anxiety, you gradually become less anxious. Then you can repeat the exercise for another obsession.

Psychiatrist Jeffrey Schwartz, author of Brain Block: Break Free from Obsessive-Compulsive Behavior, suggests the following four steps to free yourself from obsessive thoughts:

ENGAGEMENT – Recognize that obsessive thoughts and urges are a result of OCD. For example, learn to say, “I don’t think or feel that my hands are dirty. I have an obsession that my hands are dirty.” Or: “I don’t feel like I need to wash my hands. I have an obsessive desire to fulfill the compulsion to wash my hands.”
REACTRIBUTE – recognize that the intensity and intrusiveness of the thought or desire is caused by OCD; this is likely due to a biochemical imbalance in the brain. Tell yourself, “It's not me, it's my syndrome,” to remind yourself that thoughts and urges don't make sense, but are false messages from the brain.
REFOCUS – work through your thoughts by focusing your attention on something else, at least for a few minutes. Create a different behavior. Tell yourself, “I am experiencing a symptom. I need to create different behavior.”
REVALUE – Don't accept the thought. Tell yourself, “This is just a stupid obsession. She doesn't matter. It's just my brain. There is no need to pay attention to this." Remember: you can't make a thought go away, but you don't have to pay attention to it. You can learn to move on to the next behavior.

OCD in children

Cases of the disease also occur in children. You should be attentive to their mood, because the disease may not be immediately obvious. It usually occurs in children over 10 years of age. You should sound the alarm if your child:

became too whiny and sad;
often in a bad mood;
sleeps and eats poorly;
clings to your hand in a crowd and checks how tightly you hold him;
wakes up in the middle of the night to go through his things packed for school;
terrified of losing them.

If your child experiences these symptoms for a short period of time, there is no need to worry. If their character becomes permanent, you should not start treating obsessive-compulsive neurosis at home. Your assessments may be subjective, and only a doctor can determine the true reasons for the child’s behavior.

Types of disease

Obsessive-compulsive disorder can occur once, it can appear again some time after complete recovery, and it can also be a constant companion of a person and periodically worsen.

There are these types of disorders:

aggressive thoughts related to sex, religion, accompanied by periodic compulsions;
obsessive thoughts associated with violation of symmetry, which are accompanied by manic rearrangement of an object from place to place;
obsession against the background of infection or pollution, is accompanied by a constant desire to cleanse the environment: the patient washes his hands too often and disinfects objects;
a person hoards certain objects with great passion.

Music therapy

Several scientific experiments have revealed the benefits of music for people with anxiety disorders. Choosing chords on your guitar can help you focus on musical harmony and take your attention away from obsessive thoughts. Playing musical instruments takes you away from stress, and in the long term (at least a month) relieves symptoms of obsession.

If you were a sultan, what kind of concubine would be suitable? How virtuous are you

I stuck the dough to the pan and heated it: I learned how to bake buns without an oven

"Fight Club" - Slytherin: where would Pitt's characters be at Hogwarts

Causal relationship

It is impossible to determine the exact cause of the disease, because completely different segments of society are susceptible to it. The development of the disease can contribute to:

skull injuries;
dysfunction of the autonomic system;
genetic predisposition;
metabolic disorder;
chronic stress;
hermit lifestyle;
excessive impressionability;
too strict upbringing.

We will consider the manifestations of the disease in detail below.

Constant hand washing, not related to eating, etc. He always thinks that there are germs on his hands that will harm his health, although he washed them a few minutes ago.
Obsessive checking of completed actions: whether the iron is turned off, whether the door is closed.
A person is constantly afraid that he did not do something, missed something. The patient is concerned about safety.
Obsessive counting. Such people count everything: steps, the number of cars of the same color that have passed. In an attempt to distract from stress, a person unconsciously performs the same ritual many times in a row.
Total correctness and organization. Such people strive for ideal symmetrical order in everything, with which they can oppress others.

Obsessive-compulsive dissatisfaction with one's appearance. This species is associated with mirror disease. A person can spend hours looking at himself in the mirror in search of a beautiful angle and facial expression, or avoid looking in the mirror: he thinks that he has some kind of deformity, he tries to hide them with clothes or turns to plastic surgeons for help.
Conviction that what was done was wrong, a feeling of incompleteness. In such a situation, a person may move things from place to place to calm himself down.
Compulsive overeating. The problem begins because a person is ashamed of his figure and experiences negative emotions. By overeating, he unconsciously tries to drown it out. In this case, food works as a sedative.
Anxiety for the future. A person tries to predict everything and insure himself. Chronic anxiety can lead to an obsessive fear of death or insanity, which cannot be eliminated on your own.

What is a person with OCD like?

This is a fairly active nature, which puts forward too high demands on itself and others. At the same time, a person tends to doubt the success of a variety of enterprises and strive to protect himself or loved ones, just people around, from harm of a wide variety of types. The reality of the “parent” from transactional analysis is unusually active in him, but he does not trust the reality of the “child” at all and cannot admit that there is a right to spontaneity. Such people need to think through everything, but they do not trust themselves, so they may admit that they will make or have made some mistakes or unseemly acts. They intuitively guess that there is something wrong with the methods of mental defense that they use, but they don’t know what exactly, therefore, in the most severe cases, they are ready to admit that they have memory lapses and at this moment they do or have some terrible things happen to them. The answer to the question of how to live with OCD is also the answer to the question of how to live for such people.

Worth seeing: Anxious Obsessions

Diagnostics

Those who suspect that they have such a disease should consult a psychologist, because it is difficult to cure obsessive-compulsive disorder on your own, and the disease itself can progress for many years.

At the appointment, the doctor will determine:

the presence of obsessive obsessions;
hidden signs of compulsion;
changing the patient’s habitual lifestyle;
difficulties communicating with others.

For a more accurate diagnosis, several sessions are required over several weeks. Based on the symptoms, the doctor prescribes certain techniques.

Stopping thoughts. It is a kind of game in which the patient must abstract from the problematic situation and determine the significance of what is happening in his life.

Cognitive-behavioral techniques. Treatment according to the method begins with the patient’s awareness that he is sick. Gradually he is brought into a state in which his previous experiences cease to be a problem.

Carrying out treatment

There is no clear answer to how to get rid of OCD on your own. It should be understood that recovery depends on many factors, including the degree of awareness of your problem and personality characteristics. Treatment at home for obsessive-compulsive disorder does not involve the use of special medications.

The following tips will help you cope with obsessive-compulsive disorder:

brush aside doubts, track your bad thoughts and try to make them neutral;
do not pay too much attention to insignificant details;
Accustom yourself to the idea that everything is relative and not always perfect is good.

Fighting OCD on your own should begin by putting your thoughts in order, and then your actions. You should not resort to antidepressants or tranquilizers unless clearly necessary. Their use can cause addiction to the body; it will not be able to maintain a normal state without them.

You should change your lifestyle and reduce your consumption of alcohol, coffee, eat regularly and exercise. You need to quit smoking. It is worth sticking to the daily routine and going to bed on time, you need to sleep at least 8 hours.

Self healing

How to deal with OCD on your own:

drive away bad thoughts and try to look at the problem from the outside: in this case, fears and anxieties will be dulled;
do a massage: OCD appears due to a large number of muscle blocks that affect the mental state of the body;
physical labor will serve as a good antidepressant that will help get rid of bad thoughts, just buy a gym membership, go swimming or jogging;
visit museums, art galleries, listen to good music, spend time in nature more often - these activities should relax and give a person the opportunity to take a break from their worries;
Once you accept the fact that the disease exists, then eliminating it will be easier.

Borage oil

Borage, or borage, produces oil that contains gamma-linolenic acid, a known anti-inflammatory agent. In one six-week study, 44 patients with OCD were given 500 mg of borage oil, while a control group of participants received a placebo. Already after 4 weeks of therapy in the first group, the symptoms of the disease significantly decreased; after another 6 weeks, patients reported a decrease in anxiety. Be careful, as GLA has contraindications, which include pregnancy and liver disease.

Pisces in “Romeo and Juliet”: DiCaprio’s characters by zodiac sign

These balconies emanated despondency. A few plants and trinkets and a balcony is heaven.

By installing a camera in the garden, a man changed his view of animals stealing vegetables

Folk remedies

Any folk remedies do not guarantee 100% relief; they should be used with caution and only with the consent of the attending physician.

You can treat obsessive-compulsive disorder at home like this:

infusions of chamomile, valerian, linden and others have a calming effect;
Ginseng infusion helps in the fight against depression:
the root is poured with boiling water in a ratio of 1:10 and drunk 3-4 times a day, 1 tbsp. l.;
An infusion of zamanika will help fight the disorder: 1 part of the root should be poured with 10 parts of boiling water, leave for a week and apply 2-3 times a day, 30-40 drops before meals.