Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
Understanding OCD from an ISTDP Perspective
OCD isn’t just about being neat or organized. It often involves distressing thoughts or images that feel intrusive and out of your control — followed by repetitive behaviors or mental rituals used to relieve the anxiety they cause. You may find yourself checking, cleaning, counting, or mentally reviewing things over and over, even when you know it doesn’t make logical sense.
What’s Beneath the Surface?
From an ISTDP perspective, obsessive thoughts and compulsive actions often serve as defenses against deeper emotional conflicts. These automatic patterns help you avoid powerful feelings — such as anger, guilt or grief — that may feel dangerous or unacceptable based on past experiences.
Instead of feeling and expressing these emotions, your mind becomes trapped in a loop of obsessive thinking or ritual behavior, offering a temporary sense of control but keeping you stuck.
Understanding the Inner Conflict
OCD can be understood as a struggle between:
Unconscious feelings trying to emerge
Anxiety triggered by those feelings
Defenses (like obsessing or ritualizing) that try to avoid the emotion but create new suffering
This triangle — feeling, anxiety, and defense — is at the heart of ISTDP work. By understanding where you are in this triangle, we can target the root cause of your distress, not just the symptoms.
How Therapy Can Help
In therapy, we bring gentle, focused attention to the moments when anxiety rises and compulsions kick in. We slow things down, help you identify what feelings may be underneath, and work together to reduce the reliance on rigid mental or behavioral rituals. Over time, this leads to greater emotional freedom, less anxiety, and a more flexible relationship with your thoughts.
If you’re feeling stuck in loops of obsessive thinking or compulsive behaviors and would like support with it, please get in touch.