Obsession or Compulsion?
Obsessions and compulsions are often grouped together with the term OCD or Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. In analytical hypnotherapy these terms are separated to reveal two distinct types of activity:
| Obsessions | Are unwanted thoughts, feelings, urges or impulses, such as the need to check or count. |
|---|---|
| Compulsions | Are responses to anxiety and include things like nail biting or hair pulling. |
The essential difference is that compulsives with automatically and instinctively perform and activity, and feel better when an activity is completed (just as an artist needs
to paint), but an obsessive will spend time obsessing about act and the potential consequences of NOT performing an act (such as turning off the gas, or getting burgled, or making the wrong business decision, or not performing well on stage).
People tend to be mainly Obsessive or Compulsive, rather than equally both. Whether you develop obsessive or compulsive symptoms is thought to depend on your personality. Both Obsessive and Compulsive symptoms can be driven by the same unconscious anxiety. If this is the case, once that anxiety is removed though analytical hypnotherapy, both obsessive and compulsive OCD will disappear completely and permanently.
Steve Williams BA, MSc, DHP
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