How To Prevent Mental Obsession
For many, thoughts, ideas, feelings, and behaviors become repetitive and uncontrollable. How can you prevent mental obsession?
The healthy way is to know how to prevent the undesired action that triggers you to do something over and over again.
What is Mental Obsession?
Mental obsession is a condition that causes undesired reactions. They make the person repeat things over and over again, even without them wanting to.
These obsessive rituals provide relief in the short term, and not being able to do them causes anxiety and suffering.
Main Causes
The main causes of mental obsession or obsessive-compulsive disorders are the following:
- Infections
- Head injuries
- Irregular brain functions
- Emotional trauma
Also, a genetic predisposition or a history of sexual or physical abuse can increase the risk of developing some type of anxiety disorder.
- Although it’s not known exactly how, mental obsession can be hereditary.
- A strict education or overprotective controlling parents have also been suggested to increase anxiety in children.
It’s also true that if certain chemicals in the brain exceed particular limits, this can induce these conditions.
A Late Diagnosis
Some parents and teachers manage to recognize the symptoms of mental obsession early.
However, the majority of people receive a diagnosis between the ages of 19 and 20. Nevertheless, other people show symptoms after the age of 30. Children can also suffer from this type of disorder.
Anxiety disorders can cause fear and insecurity over long periods of time. As a result, because of this fear, these people’s daily lives can be heavily affected.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
Under normal circumstances, the fact that someone does something twice doesn’t represent a problem. If they want to check that the oven is off before they go out, and check twice, this is not an indicator of mental obsession.
For people who suffer from OCD, however, they’ll repeat these sorts of checks daily and indefinitely. They also tend to be accompanied by repetitive routines or thoughts, which cause distress, anxiety, and affect their daily lives.
- Amongst the most common obsessions are: a fear of germs, fear of injuring someone, disturbing religious or sexual thoughts, or excessive hygiene measures.
- Compulsions or repetitive actions often involve cleaning, counting or washing clothes, or tidying up in a specific way, even if it doesn’t need doing. This can even lead to missing work or school.
Symptoms
For people with mental obsession, some rituals like washing your hands or repeating the same steps over and over again are uncontrollable.
It’s also very common for people to keep unnecessary items, open and close doors, and be constantly counting things.
- They can’t control their thoughts. Although these rituals aren’t enjoyable, they manage to provide some relief from the anxiety.
- They may maintain this routine for at least an hour a day, which causes distress and interferes with their regular tasks.
- Symptoms can get better or worse. There can even be moments where they disappear only to reappear at a later date.
Disabling Neurological Illnesses
These mental obsessions are defined as neurological illnesses with a high disability index. They’re also the most common and reduce the patient’s quality of life, as they’re both physically and mentally exhausting.
- Unfortunately, people who suffer from these problems tend to isolate themselves and their relationship with their family can become strained.
- In some cases, their rituals can cause discomfort because of their inability to control them. In other cases, families can ignore or even join in with the rituals, which is also counterproductive.
How To Prevent Mental Obsession
If you have suspicions, you should first go to a doctor for an evaluation . If necessary, you’ll be sent to a specialist for more in-depth treatment.
This specialist could be a psychotherapist or psychologist, psychiatrist or social worker. Behavioral therapy can help teach you how to think, act, and react to situations of stress without the need for obsessive rituals.
These treatments manage to reduce anxiety and fear, as well as obsessive thoughts and, therefore, compulsive actions.
In addition, antidepressants and anti-anxiety medication (prescribed by a specialist) are sometimes recommended for preventing mental obsession. Overall, these keep the chemicals that cause them at the correct levels. You’ll start with a low dose, which will gradually increase over time.
How can you prevent mental obsession? As you can see, you need to see a good medical specialist to identify and get to the root of the condition. Then, they’ll seek to reduce the stress that causes compulsive actions and help you live a happy, healthy life.
All cited sources were thoroughly reviewed by our team to ensure their quality, reliability, currency, and validity. The bibliography of this article was considered reliable and of academic or scientific accuracy.
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- Wolff N, Giller F, Buse J, Roessner V, Beste C. When repetitive mental sets increase cognitive flexibility in adolescent obsessive-compulsive disorder. J Child Psychol Psychiatry Allied Discip. 2018;
- Richter PMA, Ramos RT. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. CONTINUUM Lifelong Learning in Neurology. 2018.
- Bartz JA, Hollander E. Is obsessive-compulsive disorder an anxiety disorder? Progress in Neuro-Psychopharmacology and Biological Psychiatry. 2006.
- Trastorno obsesivo compulsivo (TOC) – Síntomas y causas – Mayo Clinic. (2020). Retrieved 7 March 2021, from https://www.mayoclinic.org/es-es/diseases-conditions/obsessive-compulsive-disorder/symptoms-causes/syc-20354432
