How To Help A Person With OCD: 6 Tips To Provide Support
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) represents constant and intense discomfort if psychological treatment is not received. Therefore, even while attending therapy, it is important to have the support of friends and family.
In this article Let’s see how to help a person with OCD this impulse control disorder that is characterized by causing a great need to perform repetitive rituals called compulsions.
To better understand how to help a person with OCD, it is necessary to know what it is about. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is characterized by the appearance of intrusive thoughts that cause the subject to feel unwell, that things are out of control and that something bad will happen if some order is not reestablished. To mitigate this discomfort, those who develop OCD fall into repeating a series of stereotypical actions (compulsions) as a “purging” routine: scratching their nose in a certain way, washing their hands, checking what’s under a table. three times in a row, etc.
People who suffer from this disorder generally have an accelerated flow of thought with a catastrophic tendency, that is, they have the perception that things will go wrong even before they begin to do them, which produces a feeling of discomfort. acute.
It is because of this style of thinking that patients with this psychological disorder seek refuge within a bubble of excessive control in certain areas of their lives, by carrying out compulsions. Compulsions are repetitive and very specific rituals that the person with OCD feels the need to do immediately so that the discomfort caused by the obsessions (intrusive thoughts) dissipates.
Furthermore, this type of repetitive behavior has a marked tendency towards order, so these rituals are always carried out following a very strict sequence that should not be interrupted. If something comes between people with OCD and their characteristic order when carrying out these compulsions, the discomfort becomes present, to such an extent that it is impossible for them to carry out their daily routine activities calmly, and they feel that it is necessary for them to return to their normal routine. arrange everything according to the way they consider appropriate.
How to help someone with OCD?
Now we are going to look at some ways to help people who have Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
1. Accompany the person to therapy
Psychological therapy greatly helps channel the need for control in people with OCD In fact, all the ways to overcome Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder involve seeking professional help in the field of mental health. The psychotherapist will be able to adequately evaluate the particular case of the subject, offering them the tools and professional support required in these cases.
Therefore, you have to talk to the person and try to convince them to attend psychotherapy, and once the sessions have started, encourage them not to abandon treatment. We should not feed the idea that going to a psychologist is just an option: it is a necessary condition to leave OCD and the discomfort associated with it behind.
One way to provide support as a family member or friend is to accompany the patient to the therapeutic sessions with the subject, and make them see that they are not alone, but that they have the personal support that you offer to overcome complicated situations.
2. Do not try to confront them to prevent compulsions
The main thing to keep in mind when helping people with this disorder is that one should not try to adopt a confrontational attitude to try to modify any of the rituals that they perform to maintain your specific order.
The best thing will always be to adopt an attitude of understanding towards their behaviors, understanding that more than a hobby it is a necessity for them. In any case, it is these patients who must be the driving force behind their own change based on the guidelines and training given in therapy.
3. Don’t get involved in rituals
It is also not a good idea to actively participate in the rituals that the person has, understanding that this situation, instead of being positive for them, would end up encouraging obsessive behavior, causing them to start again. Many family members and friends try to provide support by imitating the subject’s behaviors, which is not appropriate.
Instead of this We must show the person that nothing happens when the ritual is not fulfilled, but we will do this through example. Without being invasive, we are going to show you that the world is not a dangerous place and that you can live in it without the need for an exacerbated order.
4. Positively reinforce their progress
A characteristic feature of people with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is that They are aware that they have a problem but are unable to abandon their obsessive routines if they do not receive help since they depend on that feeling of control to be comfortable.
What we will do to reduce these behaviors will be to give the person signs of affection and surprise prizes every time the person shows small progress by stopping being so methodical; In this way the subject will feel gratified and will want to continue improving.
5. Set clear goals
For the previous advice, implementing positive behavior reinforcers, to work effectively, it is necessary to help the subject set achievable goals, so that it is possible to evaluate and determine the improvement that has been achieved in that time.
There is no point in setting goals that are almost impossible to achieve; it only encourages frustration and the desire to abandon treatment (or live in a fiction in which the person believes they are making progress without this being true).
6. Include the immediate family nucleus
If possible, we must involve the subject’s family nucleus. This way, the environment at home will improve since the subject’s immediate family will be able to better understand why their relative sometimes acts so obsessively, and instead of arguing, they will begin to provide support.
Family therapy helps a lot in these cases ; The therapist not only evaluates and helps the person with OCD, but also gives the family members the best alternatives to positively confront the situation.
