After getting assessed by the professional the treatment part comes. OCD can be manageable in two ways (a) by using medication and (b) by psychotherapy.
Medication:
it involves the anti-depressants that assist a person to maintain the balance between the chemical of the brain such as dopamine and serotonin.
Psychotherapy:
usually, cognitive behavioral therapy and behavioral therapy are used to deal with OCD. A short period of time for therapy is highly recommended for mild OCD but for severe, the psychotherapy treatment can last longer than six months. The therapy that works effectively for OCD is cognitive behavioral therapy along with exposure and response prevention therapy.
For thoughts:
Evidential analysis
In this technique of CBT client is asked to give himself evidence of the recurrent thought such as if I check the lock once by myself why do I have to check it again and again?
Evidence for and against
This basically involves getting the analysis of how the thought work for and against one’s self like the thought of washing hand benefits you or works against you.
Identifying distorted thoughts
That involves identifying the cognitive error and writing it down to change it with a more productive one.
Normalizing
The client is instructed to not burden or embarrass himself by thinking any less of himself. That disorder can be developed by anyone and there are treatments that help a person get rid of it. It is completely normal to have it because having the disorder doesn’t make you less human or alien.
Behavioral therapy techniques
Relaxing Training
The relaxation techniques are being taught to the client and instructed to practice them when experiencing distress. It starts with being aware of the tension in the body it has several steps such as:
- Close your eyes, and have a deep breath.
- Inhale oxygen from your nose and exhale it from your mouth.
- Close your fist tightly, and observe the tension.
- Slowly open your fist and relax your tense muscles.
Cognitive therapy and exposure and prevention response
The client and therapist both play an active role in this therapy. The cooperation of the client is highly recommended.
It includes:
- With the assistance of the therapist divide or separate your problem into different chunks or parts, for example, your thoughts, behaviors, feelings, and emotional responses.
- In the second phase the exposure of the distressing thoughts and behavior gets started. The therapist motivates the client to face the fear or have that obsessive thought without normalizing the compulsion to perform a behavior. This step begins with the least anxious thought first and then it moves from the least to the maximum ones.
Note: it is not very easy to overcome your thoughts and not have any compulsion following the obsession treatment takes time that varies from the severity and willingness of the individual but people do challenge their obsessions and conquered them without performing any behavior.