Treating OCD using EMDR therapy

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, usually abbreviated as OCD, is a complex psychological disorder that is expressed through two phases, as its name indicates: obsessions, on the one hand, and compulsions, on the one hand, other.

This mixture of elements usually means that those who develop their symptoms do not even know where to start when it comes to try to combat this psychopathology, which is one of the indications that professional help is always necessary to give treatment.

Luckily, there are now useful therapeutic tools to combat OCD and bring the lives of those who suffer from it back to normal. In this article we will talk about one of these intervention models: EMDR therapy applied to the treatment of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder.

• Related article: "Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD): what is it and how does it manifest itself?"

What is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

OCD is a disorder in which a kind of vicious cycle occurs. First, a thought or mental image appears in the person's consciousness (sometimes a memory, sometimes a fanciful exaggeration of the present, sometimes a imagined situation about what could happen) that disturbs you and generates a high degree of sudden discomfort, usually in the form of anguish or anxiety.

This mental content is what is known as obsession, because the person tries to expel it from his consciousness at all costs and, at the same time, that urgency makes her attention fixate on this thought or image. As we will see, the nature of the compulsion is very important in understanding why EMDR therapy is used to treat OCD.

Second, the person with OCD begins to desperately search for ways to get rid of this discomfort as soon as possible, to get that disturbing image or idea out of their consciousness. And to put an end to that experience, perform a certain action that is apparently arbitrary, but whose meaning is more or less linked to that mental content that makes you feel wrong. This kind of ritual is what is known as compulsion.

Let's take an example: a person remembers that a week ago he made a fool of himself in front of someone he likes, and because of this she cannot help but start to think about it over and over again, recalling the event more and more exaggerated. As this causes her anguish and she cannot stop thinking about it, because she feels “contaminated” by that event, the person washes her hands repeatedly always following a pattern of movements from which you cannot get out, since violating this self-wash rule would not put an end to the discomfort.

Over time, the person learns that every time she feels bad, she must perform such a ritualAt the same time, this predisposition to give great importance to disturbing thoughts will make them appear often in her mind. Due to this, the problem is getting bigger and bigger: not only does he waste a lot of time because he finds himself in need of compulsions, but also his health is affected (specifically, his skin) and you have to interrupt many important tasks during the day to day, since these small crises last several minutes.

• You may be interested in: "EMDR (Eye Movement) Therapy: Applications and Efficacy"

What is the treatment of OCD with EMDR based on?

As we have seen, OCD is a psychopathology that is related to a kind of thought superstitious, according to which it is only possible to get rid of psychological discomfort by compulsions However, it is a disorder that can be developed in people we would normally consider rational in most areas of their livesThey just apply that kind of "magic thinking" to the way they deal with their compulsions.

And in the end, doing these rituals works for immediate relief; The problem is that in the medium and long term, feeding the vicious cycle of obsessions and compulsions is a bigger problem than the discomfort of facing each of the obsessions.

Considering this... How is EMDR therapy used? This type of psychological intervention, whose initials come from the term "Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing", is based on the idea that many anxiety and panic disorders are primarily caused by incomplete or inadequate processing of certain regards. A) Yes, To solve the patient's discomfort, it is necessary to modify the way in which the brain stores these mental contents, so that these are not expressed over and over again in a problematic way.

To achieve this, a series of brain stimulation exercises are performed that aim to make the content that does not quite fit the memory system is re-integrated into the person's mind without causing anguish. One of the ways that is used has to do with guiding the patient's gaze in certain directions, in order to achieve differentiated stimulation in each hemisphere of the brain.

At the same time, a context is created in which the patient evokes those contents that usually cause anxiety or crisis, so that these lose their harmful effect and are treated by the brain like any other memory. In many ways, EMDR therapy resembles systematic desensitization, in that it creates a new framework in which to experience what is normally disturbing or distressing.

Bibliographic references:

• Bloch, M.H.; Landeros-Weisenberger, A.; Rosario, M.C.; Pittenger, C.; Leckman, J.F. (2008). "Meta-analysis of the symptom structure of obsessive-compulsive disorder". The American Journal of Psychiatry. 165 (12): pp. 1532 - 1542.
• Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5 (5 ed.). Washington: American Psychiatric Publishing.
• Grant, J.E. (2014). Clinical practice: Obsessive-compulsive disorder. The New England Journal of Medicine. 371 (7): pp. 646 - 653.
• Logie, R. (2014). EMDR - more than just a therapy for PTSD?. The Psychologist. 27 (7): pp. 512 - 517.
• Shapiro, F.; Laliotis, D. (2015). EMDR Therapy for Trauma-Related Disorders. Evidence Based Treatments for Trauma-Related Psychological Disorders: A Practical Guide for Clinicians. Springer International Publishing. pp. 205 - 228.