Obsessive Compulsive? How Brain Harmony Treats OCD

OCD is a common condition estimated to affect around 1-2% of the population[*]. 

Some people experience obvious symptoms of OCD, while others show more subtle effects. Regardless of how intense the OCD may be, most people with this condition feel as though it controls their lives as it can take over your thinking patterns and get in the way of everyday activities. 

In this article, you'll learn what OCD is, what OCD behaviors look like, the root of OCD from a neurological perspective, and how Brain Harmony works to unravel the neurological programming behind OCD behaviors and bring you back into the driver's seat.

What Is OCD?

OCD (obsessive-compulsive disorder) is a psychological condition characterized by obsessive thoughts that lead to repetitive, compulsive behaviors. These thoughts are often unreasonable in nature, stemming from fears or obsessions. 

The obsession part of OCD comes from a hijacked thought process in the brain where small things become magnified, or logical thinking doesn't play a role. For instance, someone may decide that they need to skip the third step every time they walk up the stairs, or they will have bad luck for the day. There is no logical reasoning, but obsessive thought leads to compulsive behavior. 

When the unwanted thoughts associated with OCD lead to compulsive behaviors, it can interfere with daily activities. 

A few examples of common OCD triggers and thought patterns include excessive fear of germs, needing to be organized and tidy (symmetrical), fears of losing control, doubting that you locked the door, shut off the stove, etc. 

Someone who fears germs may compulsively wash their hands unnecessarily, while someone that needs things to be organized may compulsively adjust objects so they look symmetrical. 

OCD often includes both obsessions (thoughts) and compulsions (actions). However, some people only experience obsessions or compulsions. 

Some compulsive symptoms that may show up with OCD include[*]:

• Excessive cleaning

• Checking things over and over (like the stove)

• Counting

• Excessive organization

• Following a strict routine 

The severity of OCD can vary and can shift throughout life depending on the emotional state. When someone is under greater stress, the symptoms typically worsen. The types of compulsions and obsessions that people experience may also change throughout their life. 

People typically start seeing symptoms of OCD as teens or young adulthoods, but children can also start showing symptoms of OCD, especially those with anxiety disorders or autism. 

Neurobiology of OCD

What exactly is happening in the brain of someone with OCD?

Since the root of OCD begins with thought processes, we first need to look at the brain and the thinking process, in general, to understand where OCD behaviors come from. 

You have networks of neurons (brain cells) in your brain, which fire together to create certain thought patterns. Many of the thought patterns that you experience throughout the day are habitual and go off without your conscious awareness. For instance, your alarm clock goes off in the morning, and without much conscious awareness, the thought "Oh great, I have to get up now" pops into your head. 

While it may feel like an original thought at the moment, that's likely a neural pathway you've grooved in deeply from years and years of waking up from an alarm clock and feeling like you're not ready to get up. 

For someone with OCD, these thought patterns are less benign and come from a fear-based place. In fact, research shows that OCD is related to the activation of the amygdala -- the part of your brain that is responsible for your fear response[*]. 

Although the thoughts are not rational, the fear-brain leads you to believe that they are vitally important to pay attention to. For instance, someone with OCD may wake up from the same alarm clock, except instead of thinking the thought, "Oh great, I have to get up," they may think the thought, "I need to turn the alarm clock off within ten seconds or something very bad will happen." 

These thought loops become so deeply ingrained in someone with OCD that bringing in logic no longer matters -- this is the fear brain at work. 

A note about your amygdala: this part of the brain was vitally important for our species' survival. Our ancestors relied heavily on a functioning amygdala to keep them safe in the wild, where many real threats were around. Unfortunately, this area of the brain hasn't evolved with modern times to be able to gauge real threats versus perceived ones. This is why someone with OCD may truly feel that they are in danger by not turning off the alarm clock or not washing their hands enough.

How Brain Harmony Can Help With OCD

The key to treating OCD is to rewire the deeply ingrained pathways that lead to obsessive thoughts, which lead to conceive actions. These thought loops are at the root of OCD, so when you rewire out of that loop, it creates an off-ramp for the obsessive thought cycle. Quite literally, you need to build the physical connections outside that thought loop by leveraging your brain's neuroplasticity. 

If you're unaware, neuroplasticity is the ability of your brain to change in structure and function when given the appropriate stimuli. If you think of your brain as a network of highways with different roads leading to different thoughts, neuroplasticity would be the ability to construct new roads for more optimal "travel." At the same time, those less optimal roads can be deconstructed and grown over with green pastures. 

In other words, old roads (old fear-based thought patterns) dissolve away as new roads (new, more organized thought patterns) become your go-to route. 

So, how do you get from old roads to new ones? This is where Brain Harmony comes in. 

At Brain Harmony, we work with OCD in two phases. 

First, we calm your brain and pull it out of the fear response. This helps you feel safe and grounded. Remember, it's the activation of the fear response that triggers OCD behaviors in the first place. By working with thousands of clients, we've found that the most effective way to achieve feelings of safety and groundedness is by enhancing vagal tone. 

Vagal tone refers to the activation of your vagus nerve -- which is responsible for the parasympathetic branch of your nervous system. While the sympathetic branch is highly connected to your amygdala, the parasympathetic branch works with your vagus nerve to calm you down and make you feel safe.

By using listening systems, alpha wave producing devices, and bone conduction devices we activate the vagus nerve and train your brain and body into a place of calm. 

Since OCD is also intimately related to anxiety, techniques like meditation and mindfulness are known to naturally produce alpha brain waves -- but with a device that accelerates the development of these calming brain waves, we can provide direct access to this calm state.

A calm brain is crucial for treating OCD for a couple of reasons. First, it helps shift your focus away from fear-based thoughts (and the loops they produce) and allows more grounded, positive thinking. Second, it sets the stage for neurological reorganization. When your brain is hijacked with fear-based thinking, its neuroplasticity is very low. Basically, your ancestral brain says, "this is no time for building new pathways and thinking with an open mind; we need to survive!"

When your brain is calm, on the other hand, it creates the perfect landscape for building new roads and tearing down old ones. This sets the stage for the second phase of the OCD protocol -- neurological reorganization. 

Now that your brain is calm and ready for new inputs, we use a system with multiple sensory input to your brain and body. These inputs offer instructions for organizing new neural pathways and reinforcing ones that are already working properly. 

This is where the road construction, or neuroplasticity, comes in. By creating new, more organized "roads" in your brain, you rewire yourself out of the old OCD loop and create strong off-ramps for new ways of thinking. This helps to break those old patterns so that obsessive thoughts become quieter and compulsive actions feel less compulsive. 

Takeaway: You Can Rewire OCD

If you or a loved one has struggled with OCD then you know how debilitating it can be. The good news is that there is a roadmap out of the struggle if you know which tools to use, and how to use them. 

At Brain Harmony we have helped thousands of clients reclaim their life with our 5-step process for bringing your nervous system back into balance, and organizing your brain and body so they’re working together.

For more information about how Brain Harmony works with OCD, schedule a Free Consultation today.