What are the psychological effects of obsessional neurosis?

A review of the emotional and behavioral consequences of obsessional neurosis.

A good part of the psychological alterations that lead people to seek professional help in psychotherapy have to do with problems in the management of emotions. Among these emotional disturbances, some can be considered neuroses, although this term is very broad and includes a wide variety of mental phenomena and behavioral patterns.

In this article we are going to focus on what is known as obsessive neurosis, to see which are the typical psychological effects of these..

What does the word neurosis mean?

The word neurosis has been used in the clinical field since the eighteenth century.It was in the early twentieth century, when the Scottish physician William Cullen used this word to refer to what certain patients experienced with alterations in the way they moved and experienced moods, which were apparently caused by dysfunctions in the nervous system.

However, it was at the beginning of the 20th century when this word acquired importance in the world of psychological patient care, thanks to Sigmund Freud and the more or less direct followers of his theories and psychodynamic approach to the human mind, such as Carl Jung. These authors defined neurosis above all as an inability to adjust emotionally to the environment and social contexts of everyday life.

Thus, if psychosis was a psychiatric disorder that involved a cognitive, emotional and perceptual disconnection with reality, then neurosis affected primarily the human mind, neurosis affected above all the emotions. and its impact on people's quality of life was not considered so radical, in most cases. Patients with neurosis who came to the consultation of specialists were not unable to fully understand what was going on around them, but their emotional response to day-to-day events generated problems for them and the people around them: for example, through unjustified outbursts of anger, a very intense fear of leaving the protection of the family, a tendency to cry a lot for no apparent reason, etc.

However, although the term neurosis was used as a diagnostic category in the first editions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, the most widely used line of diagnostic manuals in the field of mental health, today it is no longer used officially, in favor of other, more specific terms.It is no longer used officially, in favor of other more specific terms when describing the symptoms of psychopathologies. But that does not mean that in certain cases it is not useful as a conceptual shortcut to talk about certain cases in which a relatively frequent typical clinical picture is seen among patients in psychotherapy or psychiatric care.

Main psychological effects of obsessional neurosis.

As we have seen, the concept of neurosis has very fuzzy boundaries and is currently rather in disuse in favor of other terms that refer to psychological disorders detailed in the diagnostic manuals used in psychiatry and clinical psychology today (among other things, because the symptoms of each of them are much more concrete).

For example, some of the psychopathologies that overlap with the concept of neurosis are Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, phobias, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, Intermittent Explosive Disorder, and more.

However, it is still possible to refer to the different types of neurosis to describe in an approximate way the psychological alterations that some patients present, and the possible causes behind them.

With this in mind, what does an obsessional neurosis consist of?

Obsessive neurosis is a form of neurosis characterized by recurrent thoughts that "trap" over and over again the person's consciousness.. The problems to which it gives rise may have to do with the fear of something happening (a hypothetical scenario that comes to the person's mind constantly and at inappropriate times, causing great emotional disturbance) and/or with the tendency to constantly fantasize about the same thing, taking the person away from his or her responsibilities and the possibility of having a satisfactory social life.

In any case, in most cases, these obsessive thoughts give rise to stress or anxiety, either because of the discomfort they cause or because of the discomfort they cause.either because of the discomfort produced by these ideas or mental images, or because of the psychological tension they generate by putting the person in a state of "alert" (for example, by feeling frustrated that he or she is not living what he or she fantasizes about and looking for opportunities to move from wishful thinking to reality).

Now that we have seen the general characteristics of obsessional neurosis, let us see in more detail what are its psychological effects on those who develop this disorder.

1. It produces psychological rumination

Rumination is one of the key elements of obsessional neurosis. As its name indicates, this disorder is based on obsessions, recurrent thoughts that appear in the person's mind over and over again.. This causes the person to be attentive to the possible appearance of those ideas or mental images, when learning to fear those unpleasant experiences, so that a vicious circle is produced.

2. A feeling of lack of control over one's actions appears.

The person with obsessional neurosis has problems to repress the impulse to alleviate the discomfort generated by the obsessions. performing certain actions, which become routines.. Thus, their daily life is increasingly limited by the need to perform these rituals more and more frequently.

3. It leads to inadequate anxiety management strategies.

The way in which people with obsessional neurosis try to alleviate their discomfort tends to reinforce the problem by providing momentary relief but, at the same time, predisposing them to the constant appearance of anxiety, predispose to the constant appearance of these recurrent thoughts..

For example, biting the nails to "eliminate" the feeling of having done something wrong makes the nails worse and the person has a constant reminder of what has led him/her to bite them.

4. Limits the person's social life

Another of the psychological effects of obsessive neurosis is that It becomes more difficult to connect with others to the point of creating strong emotional bonds, because of the tendency to introspection and/or the rituals of discomfort relief of people with this disorder.This is due to the tendency to introspection and/or rituals to alleviate the discomfort of people with this disorder.

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