What is an obsession? Causes, symptoms and treatment

These repetitive and emotionally charged ideas can get us into a vicious circle.

Most of us have experienced times in which, due to periods of anxiety, stress or difficult situations, we have experienced a series of recurrent and uncontrollable thoughts or ideas that have generated high levels of anguish.

However, although these experiences are generally normal, we run the risk of these thoughts turning into obsessions.. So that this does not happen, it will be of great utility to us to know in what these obsessions consist, as well as their typologies and the resources that we have to our scope to fight them.

• Article related: "Rumination: the annoying vicious circle of the thought".

What does an obsession consist of?

The obsessions, or obsessive thoughts, are thought dynamics in which the person's mind clings to a fixed idea.. Usually, these ideas are associated with some event, event or situation that supposes a worry or concern for this one that generates feelings of fear or anguish.

For a thought to be considered obsessive, it must fulfill a series of characteristics. The first is that these ideas must be repetitive and recurrentthat is to say, that they appear constantly in the person's mind.

In addition, they must also arise involuntarily and be uncontrollable; this means that, no matter how much the person tries not to think about them or eliminate them from his head, these ideas will come back to mind, maybe even more strongly.

The most common causes that give rise to these obsessions or obsessive thoughts are states of anxiety and psychological stress. In both cases the person experiences a series of recurrent worries or fears that, in addition, tend to worsen the symptoms of anxiety.

Therefore, the person is involved in a vicious circle in which he/she suffers an anxiety that provokes a series of obsessive thoughts, which in turn contribute to feed more the symptoms of this anxiety.

The ways in which these obsessive thoughts are externalized are many and very diverse, and in most cases will be influenced by the personality traits of the subject, as well as the surrounding context.as well as the surrounding context. Obsessive behaviors related to order, cleanliness or physical appearance, are the reflection of these ideas that obfuscate the mind of the person.

What differentiates a worry from an obsession?

Although it is true that a worry can become an obsession, and this in turn can become so chronic that it becomes pathological. can acquire a degree of chronicity that turns it into pathological, there are a series of differences that allow us to distinguish between a worry and an obsessive idea.There are a series of differences that allow us to distinguish between a worry and an obsessive idea.

Unlike the worries of more normative category, the obsessive thoughts have a much higher degree of intensity, frequency and duration, reason why they are also susceptible to provoke much more discomfort.

Moreover, in the case of obsessions, the subject has almost no control over them. That is to say, they show a much greater resistance to the person's attempts to eliminate them from his or her head..

Finally, according to a study conducted by Paul Salkovskis, professor of clinical psychology and applied sciences at the University of Bath, revealed that 90% of mentally healthy people experienced a series of intrusive ideas related to worries that caused a high degree of distress and discomfort, but did not reach the category of obsessions.

When can they be considered pathological?

As we have seen above, a large number of people tend to experience a series of obsessive thoughts which need not be linked to any type of psychological pathology. However, there is a risk that these obsessions can become chronic obsessive thoughts, which can turn into an obsessive disorder. become an obsessive disorder and interfere notably in the person's daily life.

Obsessions or recurrent worries of a normative category tend to disappear with time, or once the problem has been resolved. However, these thoughts can be very distressing and stressful.

When these thoughts become severe obsessions and are accompanied by compulsive acts aimed at reducing the discomfort, it is quite possible that the person suffers from the well-known obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In this case, the obsessions must be qualified as pathological, since they are part of a much broader symptomatology.

In addition, although this is not a general rule, the thoughts characteristic of this type of psychological disorder need not necessarily be subject to reason.. That is to say, the ideas or worries that flood the patient's mind may be incoherent or have no rational basis.

For example, the person may think uncontrollably and constantly that if the light is left on something bad may happen to him when he leaves the house, so he performs compulsive and constant checks. Here it is shown how the thoughts are not necessarily logical, since they link two facts that in reality have nothing to do with each other.

Finally, although the person can come to accept that his or her ideas are not based on any logical principle, he or she is not able to eliminate these obsessions at all.

Types of obsessions

As for the content of obsessive thoughts, these can be as varied as there are people in the world. However, there are a number of relatively recurrent obsessions both within the OCD population and in those people who, due to anxiety or stress, experience this type of uncontrollable ideas.

Some types of obsessive ideas include:

• Obsession with order and organization.
• Obsessive fears in relation to the home. Like closing the whole house, leaving the light or gas on, etc.
• Irrational and obsessive ideas about cleanliness and illnesses.
• Obsessive fear to run some danger of physical type.
• Obsessive thoughts of sexual nature.

How to manage these thoughts?

In cases where the obsessions are part of a diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive disorder, it will be necessary for the person to visit a mental health professional to initiate therapy appropriate to their condition.

However, if these thoughts are only due to a particularly complicated stage of life, there are some techniques or steps that the person can carry out in order to reduce or eliminate these thoughts. These techniques include:

• Keeping the mind and body active through physical exercise.
• Do not try to stop or control the thoughtsLet them flow temporarily until their intensity decreases.
• Know the origin of these thoughts and try to solve the problem.
• To reflect these thoughts in writing.
• To carry out relaxation techniques.
• If nothing works to go to a professional in psychology.