When OCD first latched for me 10 years ago, I began an urgent search for a quick fix. I tried several different methods such as OCD “gone in one week” e-books, law of attraction books, mindfulness, counselling/CBT therapies, audio tapes, Instagram/Facebook accounts, and so on. I was confused by all the differing advice, which made my search to get better even more desperate.
I came across hypnotherapy and read stories of how people quickly overcame their fears by being hypnotised and accessing their subconscious mind. It sounded too good to be true, but I thought I might as well give it a shot as hope was fading fast.
I tried hypnotherapy on three occasions – twice on Harley Street in London and once at my local mental health counsellor. The process was generally the same: being seated in a quiet room with relaxing music playing in the background, while the hypnotist would talk to you after you gave them a rundown of your fears.
In the moment, I thought I was hitting the jackpot and that my mind would be cured after I walked out. For a few moments after I left, there was this weird placebo effect where I thought I had recovered. But I soon realised, after leaving the clinic and experiencing a strong trigger, that hypnotherapy wasn’t going to work.
With OCD, hypnotherapy gets us nowhere. While it may impact or help other people in terms of overcoming their own challenges – such as stopping smoking, losing weight, or certain phobias – chronic OCD in the brain is a different animal. The deep fears involved in the cycle have to be uprooted over a period of time, with beliefs and behaviours being aligned.
No amount of “relax to the thought of being rejected” or “think an army of good thoughts” with calming music in the background will compensate when you’re actually in the moment, facing discomfort head on and changing yourself through the process of doing and learning through exposure and belief work.
The brain needs to learn by doing and experience.
Also, hypnotherapy can become a compulsion because it tries to get rid of discomfort, which is the antithesis of OCD recovery – which is getting comfortable with being uncomfortable.
At the same time, even if hypnotherapy was a cure, I doubt OCD sufferers would be able to make full use of it. When you’re in that room, trying desperately to relax and access your deeper mind, you create a lot of hyperarousal that makes it difficult to go deeper into your mind. I remember being on the bed thinking, “Is this working? Am I relaxing enough?” which was a total disaster, and if anything left me more hopeless than before I had walked in.
For now, we can’t use quick fixes to outrun the recovery work.