Mental compulsions

Mental compulsions involve doing something in one's head in response to an obsession in order to prevent a feared outcome, or to reduce the anxiety that the obsession causes. For example, a person with religious obsessions may fear that her children will become sick if she thinks blasphemous thoughts.

1. How do you stop mental compulsions?
2. What are examples of compulsions?
3. What are some mental rituals?
4. What are compulsions in anxiety?

How do you stop mental compulsions?

Practice exposure by bringing on the obsession in reality and in imagination. Practice ritual prevention by refraining from doing compulsions and fear blocking behaviors. Practice acceptance, fully experiencing the triggered thoughts, images, impulses, emotions, and physical sensations they set off.

What are examples of compulsions?

Compulsions

• praying or repeating certain phrases over and over.
• counting to a certain number, sometimes a specific number of times.
• collecting or hoarding items.
• washing hands or body parts over and over.
• cleaning rooms and items, sometimes multiple times or for several hours of the day.

What are some mental rituals?

Common mental rituals

• Special words, images, numbers, repeated mentally to neutralize anxiety.
• Special prayers (short or long) repeated in a set manner.
• Mental counting.
• Mental list-making.
• Mental reviewing (e.g. reviewing conversations or actions)
• Mental erasing of unwanted mental images.
• Mental un-doing.
• Self-reassurance.

What are compulsions in anxiety?

Compulsions are repetitive activities that you do to reduce the anxiety caused by the obsession. It could be something like repeatedly checking a door is locked, repeating a specific phrase in your head or checking how your body feels.