Help for Obsessions & Obsessive behaviours at 1066 Therapy
covering East Sussex, Battle, Hastings, Bexhill, Rye, Heathfield, Hailsham, Eastbourne, Crowborough, Brighton, Tunbridge Wells, Tonbridge, Ashford and Kent.
I am often asked for help by people with obsessions or obsessive behaviours. These usually take the form of repeated checking or counting routines, or obsessive cleaning. They can also be repetitive thoughts, for instance. I have helped a variety of clients with obsessive problems at my practice just outside of Battle, East Sussex. Sometimes the obsessions are their main reason for wanting help and sometimes it is part of a range of issues.
Safety-seeking
Whatever our obsessions or obsessive behaviours are, it is usually helpful to know that they are in fact ‘safety seeking’ behaviours. The need to carry out routines to help us to feel safe(r) – to regulate our nervous systems – develops because there is an underlying generalised anxiety present. Unfortunately, as with other behaviours we use to regulate or systems, we build a tolerance to them, so we need to gradually do more and more to achieve the same result. This is how obsessions can develop to the point where they can undermine our life. For example, we may need to carry out an increasing number of checking routines before we feel able to leave the house.
Causes of underlying anxiety
Neuroscientific research over recent decades has found that we experience feelings of anxiety when our nervous system is dysregulated. This dysregulation is most often caused by unprocessed emotions (held throughout our system). Or perhaps by unresolved trauma(s). The obsessions develop as an attempt to ‘ward off’ the inner discomfort and the sense of ‘something bad about to happen’. Our upset nervous system causes these feelings. However, most people with obsessions will not even be aware that they have any inner discomfort or dysregulation. This is because the way they feel inside is their ‘normal’ and is something they have been living with for years.
The need for carrying out obsessions has its origin in past experiences which have been challenging, adverse, emotionally overwhelming, or traumatic – and therefore dysregulating to the nervous system – in some way. These experiences are usually from early life and children are not able to connect the impact of these experiences to the development of safety seeking behaviours. The difficulty in connecting the two elements generally continues into adulthood. However, it is possible to resolve the causes of obsessive behaviours using appropriate therapy.
Therapy help
I offer different approaches for this (and every problem). The choice of which one (or more) to take depends on the individual and their circumstances.
Please browse my site for information on the various therapies / approaches that I practise.
Call or text me now on 07722783490 to book your free 30 minute initial consultation.
