Wanting to Manage Everything

A common presentation of OCD can be a hyper-control of details in one’s own life and those of loved ones.  These individuals can feel a sense of temporary peace when they are able to compulsively manage their surroundings.  However, any small disruption ripples through their lives and creates a seemingly unmanageable amygdala hijack.  

Over-control of details in the environment, schedule, or in one’s person, is a compulsion.  

This compulsion is a defense response from a fear of being unsafe.  These people are labeled by those in their inner circle as “micro-managers” or “very particular.”  In OCD treatment, we let go of one thing at a time, until many things float outside the circle of management/control.  

When we do these exposures of letting go, OCD individuals can have physical reactions from the sympathetic nervous system being activated.  This is due to an over-sensitive fight or flight response that makes us feel like we are actually in danger when we are simply experiencing the dis-ease of being activated, but then not doing compulsions.  

The long term solution is allowing our bodies to experience this sympathetic nervous system reaction and making friends with our discomfort.  We cannot be activated forever (in fact, it usually lasts at most 90 minutes) and then we will begin to come down from our cortisol high.  As long as we keep ourselves from performing our rituals or compulsions, this discomfort will support healing.  

After we have allowed ourselves time with the exposure, we may then find some additional solace by tapping into the parasympathetic nervous system.  

The parasympathetic nervous system, also known as the “rest and digest” nervous system, is the complement to the “fight or flight” system.  

Learning tools of mindfulness, meditation, and grounding into nature all help to increase our ability to recover from triggered states.  

With time and treatment, we learn that our compulsions (such as hyper-control) are false friends, and radical acceptance allows us more peace and freedom.  

Kairos Wellness Collective offers OCD Therapy, including Exposure Response Prevention Therapy (ERP) - the gold star treatment for OCD, as well as the adjunct therapies of Mindfulness, Yoga Therapy, Acupuncture, and Forest Bathing, to help you find the peace and freedom you are seeking. Reach out today to find out more!