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Exploring metaphors to help break the cycle of OCD
Exploring metaphors to help break the cycle of OCD
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) gets oversimplified as being extra neat or orderly by those who’ve never experienced it. In fact, OCD is one of the most challenging mental health conditions.
This unconscious anxiety cycle involves intrusive thoughts (obsessions), anxiety, and repetitive behaviour patterns (compulsions), which reinforce the pattern. The severity and experience of this challenging cycle varies from person to person.
Often, someone with OCD knows their obsessions are irrational, and compulsions are ‘not normal,’ so shame and guilt get added to the mix, which only serves to compound the disordered thinking and suffering even further.
The power of metaphors to create unconscious change
I’ve found exploring metaphors in OCD treatment to be one of the most useful tools to help someone relate differently to their experiences and find more empowering ways to relate to their thoughts and feelings.
By externalising an experience and imagining it differently, metaphors help new concepts and complex ideas resonate in a more tangible and relatable way. Metaphors can also help us uncover the underlying beliefs and unique patterns that have been holding the issue in place.
When we observe our experiences from a new perspective, we create psychological space between who we are as a person and the symptoms or emotions we’re experiencing. With this new perspective, it’s easier to tap into our innate ability to change, grow, and learn.
To get started in the process, it’s useful to explore the well-used and popular metaphors for OCD below.
OCD as an Octopus
Imagine OCD as an octopus with many tentacles. Each tentacle represents a different obsession or compulsion. We aim to weaken or shrink the octopus so that even if the ‘tentacles’ try to hit you, they no longer have the same power as before.
The OCD recovery journey often has ups and downs, as obsessions and compulsions can show up in many different areas of life. Just when you think you’ve made progress, a new obsession might appear. This is a bit like cutting off one tentacle thinking you’ve resolved everything, only to be grabbed by another. This can be disheartening unless we take a longer-term flexible focus. We aim to weaken and shift the octopus, so we focus on celebrating any positive difference as a sign of progress.
The octopus is also very clever and adapts its grip the more someone resists. Instead of fighting feelings of distress or strong emotions, we can learn to sit with and manage them without using compulsions.
OCD as a Mind Monster
Another useful metaphor is imagining OCD as a monster in the mind, which gets stronger the more you feed it with compulsions.
Our goal isn’t to kill the monster, but to tame it and weaken it by no longer accidentally feeding it. Fighting the monster doesn’t work, as the OCD monster thrives on strong emotions like fear, guilt, and shame. Instead, we want to understand the monster with more compassion and create a separation from who you are and the glitch in the unconscious processing.
Another way of imagining OCD is like a constant tug-of-war between the logical you and the anxious mind monster part who will do anything to protect itself. This ongoing battle is exhausting, and no amount of logic can ever win.
By shifting the meaning of what OCD is, and learning new skills to manage emotional distress, we can learn to ‘drop the rope’ and stop fighting.
OCD as a bully
We could also start to refer to OCD as the inner bully and recognise that, just like a real-life bully it targets your deepest fears and insecurities. It also uses threats and guilt to gain control.
At first, it seems safest to give in to the OCD bully, but the relief is only temporary and only makes the threats worse over time. Also, like a real-life bully, the OCD bully often lies to get its own way and escalates the threats if you try to stand up to it.
Learning not to react, remaining calm, and no longer believing the inner bully’s lies is key to recovery.
Going deeper into metaphors
The most powerful metaphors for change are the ones that come spontaneously from our own imagination.
So, if you were to imagine your experience of OCD as a metaphor or character, what’s it like?
How would you draw it? Could you give it a name? What do you notice when you do? When you relate to OCD as a metaphor, what solutions come to mind more easily?
Let us know how you get on!
Clare Burgess has been a Cognitive Hypnotherapist for over 10 years, specialising in anxiety issues, birth confidence and perinatal wellbeing.
She trains other hypnotherapists in Confident Childbirth & delivers regular mental health recovery workshops for the Compass Recovery College in Reading.
https://www.clareburgess.co.uk/
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