How to Overcome OCD: The Most Effective Holistic Approaches
Do you feel overwhelmed by obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and the relentless cycle of obsessions and compulsions that take up so much of your time and energy? If so, please know there are effective ways to overcome it.
OCD can range from mildly annoying to severely distressing, often leaving you mentally exhausted and drained. OCD sufferers can find themselves trapped in a cycle of intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours, with increasing feelings of anxiety and distress. Having suffered from severe OCD myself many years ago, which I overcame on my own using only natural techniques, I know how debilitating it can be.
While traditional treatments like medication, cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) can help to a certain extent, many clients tell me that they found them not effective enough to help them to resolve their OCD, and they found ERP harsh and distressing,
The powerful, holistic approaches I use, however, are much gentler and are highly effective for resolving OCD. These techniques empower you to achieve long-term freedom or, at the very least, manage your symptoms effectively.
This blog outlines the most effective holistic strategies that I have personally found for overcoming OCD and reclaiming control over your life.
Understanding OCD
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD is a complex anxiety disorder where a person is overwhelmed by intrusive, obsessive thoughts and repetitive, compulsive behaviours. For some people, it can be intrusive obsessive thoughts without any obvious compulsive behaviours.
OCD is driven by a fear that something bad might happen if certain compulsive behaviours or the blocking of certain thoughts are not followed. Performing these rituals or behaviours only brings temporary relief from anxiety, often with increased anxiety then next time round. These symptoms can be especially heightened in times of increased stress and anxiety in the person’s life creating a vicious circle of increased anxiety and stress.
These obsessions and compulsions can disrupt your daily life, causing you great distress and impairing your ability to function. OCD can be exhausting, as it creates a cycle of anxiety-driven thoughts and behaviours that can be really hard to break.
Sufferers often feel too embarrassed or ashamed afraid to tell others and worry that they won’t understand. It's important for them to realise that there is nothing to be embarrassed or ashamed about.
The anxiety and stress from OCD can lead to generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) and or depression. Someone suffering from OCD may also have other issues such as an eating disorder or body dysmorphic disorder.
It’s a common misunderstanding that OCD can merely be about being concerned about being tidy, organized or a bit of a perfectionist, but that really misses the mark.
While OCD often starts in late adolescence or early adulthood, symptoms can appear as early as six years old.
The Main Types of OCD
OCD can manifest in countless ways, but the most common categories include:
- Checking: Repeatedly verifying tasks or actions (e.g., locking doors, turning off appliances).
- Contamination: Fear of germs or mental contamination.
- Symmetry and Ordering: Obsessing over order, alignment, or symmetry.
- Intrusive Thoughts: Distressing, anxiety-provoking thoughts or images.
- Hoarding: Difficulty discarding items due to emotional attachment or fear of loss.
Every sufferer’s experience with OCD is unique, and I’ve seen so many forms and variations in my work with clients. Its impact can range from mild disruption to severe impairment and distress, and it can affect many different areas of your daily life, including your work, and relationships.
Traditional vs. Holistic Treatments for OCD
Traditional treatments for OCD
Traditional OCD treatments, such as medications, which focuses on managing symptoms, and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention, (ERP) can provide limited relief.
CBT aims to help you consciously change your thoughts. However, just working cognitively with the conscious mind is not completely effective for resolving OCD. This is because OCD is really about the neural connections between thoughts, feelings, emotions, subconscious associations, and the imagination in a way that’s too convincing and anxiety provoking for the person to just use rational thought to break the pattern.
ERP aims to help you confront and desensitize yourself to triggers, which does work, but most people find it harsh and distressing.
While these methods can be helpful, they don’t address the underlying emotional and psychological issues driving OCD. They also take much longer to achieve noticeable or lasting results than with the right kind of holistic methods.
Holistic Treatments for OCD
Holistic approaches, on the other hand, take a whole-person view of mental health and OCD. It's really important to work on the underlying fear and anxiety for effective results, as well as to use gentle but effective ways to help you to expose yourself to triggers while using powerful calming techniques to help you feel comfortable with your thoughts and to change your compulsive behaviours.
I use a combination of therapies and highly effective tools and techniques to help you to:
- Release fear and anxiety and to you calm your nervous system.
- Rewire your brain’s responses to obsessive thoughts.
- Heal past emotional issues and traumas contributing to your OCD.
- Empower you with tools to feel calm and to regain control over your thoughts and actions.
Effective Holistic Treatments for OCD
There are a range of therapies and techniques that I have found be highly effective for resolving OCD, and I tailor these to each client and their specific issues.
I help clients to resolve the underlying fears, anxieties, and subconscious patterns, and I teach them how to feel relaxed around their thoughts and feelings so that the intrusive thoughts, obsessions and compulsions become weakened and no longer have power of them.
The main therapies I use include:
- Additional tools and techniques for calming the nervous system and rewiring thought patterns.
How Hypnotherapy Helps for OCD
Hypnotherapy is particularly effective for addressing OCD because it works directly with the subconscious mind, and it also helps you to relax. With hypnotherapy, we can:
- Combined with the other therapies I use we can resolve the fears driving the OCD.
- Resolve negative thought patterns and emotional triggers.
- Reprogram your subconscious responses to obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours.
- Replace anxiety with calm, empowering thoughts.
- Use gentle exposure techniques while you feel quite comfortable and safe.
This gentle approach allows clients to make changes without the harshness of traditional exposure therapy.
How Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) Helps for OCD
NLP helps to resolve trauma, reframe intrusive thoughts and break the cycle of obsessions and compulsions. Through NLP techniques, we can:
- Release negative emotions and limiting beliefs.
- Reprocess past traumas contributing to OCD.
- Break obsessive compulsive cycles.
- Help you create positive emotional states to replace fear and anxiety.
How Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) Helps for OCD
EFT, or tapping, is a simple yet powerful tool for releasing emotional distress and trauma For OCD, EFT helps:
- Calm the body’s stress and anxiety response.
- Address underlying fears, anxiety and other emotions driving and exacerbating OCD symptoms.
- As with NLP, EFT can also be used to resolve trauma contributing to fears and anxiety driving your OCD.
- Give you a practical tool that you can use on yourself for calming your mind and emotions and helping to change your patterns of OCD.
Other Effective Tools and Techniques for overcoming OCD
I also use a range of other tools and techniques to help you to calm your nervous system, rewire your thoughts and behaviours, feel more in control of your emotional, mental state, and behaviours, and to create positive, resourceful, happy states of mind. I make sure you feel empowered to help yourself in an ongoing way in your life, as I use these techniques in sessions and teach you how to use them anytime you need to in the future.
Nutrition and gut health are also important for mental health, and for some people it is contributory factor for OCD. I encourage clients to look at how they can improve their diet and gut health, although I don't give very specific dietary advice as this is not my area of expertise.
How many sessions for OCD are needed?
The number of sessions you may need to resolve OCD or obsessive thinking and ruminating can vary. It depends on the intensity and complexity your issues.
Because I use a blend of therapies and techniques that have been proven to work to help treat OCD quickly and effectively, I have been able to speed up the process of recovery when compared to traditional techniques such as CBT, ERP, psychotherapy or counselling. During a free telephone consultation, we can discuss how I can help you and the possible number of sessions you may need.
How you can overcome OCD
If you are suffering from any type of OCD or obsessive, intrusive thoughts or ruminations, it is completely possible for you to overcome it with the right kind of therapies, tools and techniques for you. At the very least, you will be able to reduce it to a very manageable level. I use safe, gentle and effective therapies and techniques tailored to each client.
If you are wondering how i can help you overcome OCD, or any other issues you may be having, please feel free to get in touch to arrange a complimentary telephone consultation.
if you want to find out more about OCD and how hypnotherapy can help you overcome OCD, here’s an article that I wrote on the Hypnotherapy Directory.
Disclaimer: This website does not provide medical advice. This blog post is intended for informational purposes only. Consult your GP or otherwise medically qualified health professional regarding any medical issues you have, changes to your treatment or medication.