3 Vital Reasons Why I Use Hypnosis For Treating OCD – And

Why You Should Too

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a thief.

It steals your life.

OCD can express differently in different people,

but the underlying mechanism is the same.

Obsessive thoughts lead to obsessive actions

such as turning taps on and off, or hand

washing, or cleaning, or anything.

Here are 3 reasons why I use hypnosis to treat Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (and why you

should too)

1. OCD is hypnosis

Every single one of the hundreds of OCD

sufferers I’ve treated over two decades have

described how, when they are obsessing or

acting compulsively, they feel like they ‘space

out’.

During any hypnotic state there’s a narrowing

down of your focus of attention at a given

trigger, a feeling of ‘time disappearing’ during

hours of (for example) hand washing. You

become inwardly absorbed as the imagination

becomes more ‘real’ than external reality.

OCD isn’t really a ‘thought disorder’. It’s a

‘feeling disorder’ – even an ‘imagination

disorder’.

So it makes sense to treat a ‘hypnotic condition’

with hypnosis.

2. Hypnosis communicates with the ‘problem part’ of the mind

You might have heard the parable of the man

looking for something in the street at night...

“What are you looking for?” asks his neighbour.

“I’ve lost my key,” says the man.

“Where did you lose it?”

“In my house.”

“Then why are you looking for it out here in the

street?”

“Because there’s more light to see by under

this street lamp!”

Trying to work at the conscious level with

someone when the problem really resides in,

and is maintained, by, their subconscious mind

is like the man looking for his key in the wrong

place just because there seems to be ‘more

light’ in that place.

3. Hypnosis is a great way to extract the fear from OCD

“Sheila, how would you feel if someone

physically prevented you from compulsively

checking water taps?”

“I’d be terrified. Even thinking about that makes

me feel anxious!”

But what if it didn’t?

What if Sheila could become totally relaxed

with the thought of – and the reality of – not

checking?

The power would be taken away from the OCD

right there. OCD is fuelled by fear.

In treatment of OCD it’s both intelligent and

practical to focus on taking the fear out of not

carrying out some compulsive behaviour.

We can use the hypnotic Rewind Technique

to decondition the anxiety around not carrying

out OCD rituals.

When we do this OCD can evaporate

amazingly fast.

There are many other reasons why hypnosis is

great for treating OCD, but these are the three

that I think really count.

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