If you, or someone you know, suffers from OCD or obsessive ruminating, it’s likely that coronavirus, has made things worse.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder or OCD describes a condition where a person is overwhelmed by obsessive thoughts or compulsive and repetitive activities. When obsessions develop into pervasive OCD, all aspects of life are affected. The impact, of course, will be unique in every case but it’s likely that work, relationships, and friendships will be negatively impacted.

With our current climate being so challenging, It’s important to distinguish between increased hand-washing in response to government advice related to COVID-19, and obsessive hand-washing that is out of proportion and out of control.

We are all thinking more about our behaviour and being more cautious. However, if you can’t ‘switch off’, obsessively watch the news, or frequently ruminate on what could happen or might happen, you may have developed an unhelpful habit.

When you manifest obvious damaging physical habits, eg your hands become red raw, or severely dry and cracked, or you start pulling your hair out, literally, you know you have a more serious problem.

One effect of OCD is the constant worry that something terrible is going to happen. It’s exhausting.

Over time, family and friends struggle to understand or give support. The long-term result can be social isolation and emotional torment, leading to generalised anxiety and depression.

Solution Focused Hypnotherapy is proven to help sufferers gently resolve these challenges by steadily changing perceptions embedded in the subconscious mind, and breaking the pattern of negative and repetitive thinking, and catastrophizing.

It’s important to stress here that I do not diagnose, I simply respond to each client’s assessment of their own issues; however, they define them. As a Solution Focused Hypnotherapist, we do not analyse the root causes of how the problem was created, we simply help you to imagine your preferred future using trance, and give you the tools to make your desired changes, this enable you to take back control of your life.