Here’s the original article, OCD Today: What Is HOCD?
A clinical psychologist replies to a reader question: Do I Have OCD, HOCD, Depression, Anxiety?
HOCD, also known as Homosexual Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is a form of OCD that a person has when they have a fear of unwanted thoughts that they might somehow be attracted to the same sex. People who have these thoughts often feel they are losing control or feel they are having paranoia of some sort.
These feelings are caused by a fear of attraction to the person of the same sex. Most often a person will have thoughts in their mind such as “I am not as good looking as him” or “he’s really good looking”, which will eventually lead to such thoughts as a person wondering if they are gay because they think that a person of the same sex is good looking. But this has nothing to do with a person being homosexual at all.
When a person has HOCD they are having insecure, false thoughts to the afflicted person. A person will often feel as though something isn’t right or something doesn’t quite fit into reality with the situation. These thoughts and feelings will often cause anxiety, confusion, stress and pain. These thoughts will often continue and will not go away as if it is attacking their mind.
It is as though an inside impulse is trying to convince you to do something that you would not normally do. A good example would be your mind telling you to jump off a bridge and you know for sure it is not a rational thought that you would normally think of and you know for sure that you would not do it. Well, HOCD is the same thing when you’re having thoughts of being gay you know you will not carry out any homosexual activities. This is what impulse fear is and it’s what causes a person to be confused and having OCD type behavior. It turns into a disorder when the thoughts become persistent and you’re unable to control the thoughts. Having these thoughts, a person is often being convinced by something in their mind that is not true and this causes confusion and mental distraction.
If your experience HOCD or you know someone that is going through HOCD, the next steps that will help you to prevent these unrealistic thoughts so that you will be free from it and you will better be able to control your mind.
One of the best types of help to seek is the help from a professional that is trained to help people that have HOCD/OCD disorders. They will be able to talk you through ways to keep your mind, emotions, and self esteem under control. A Psychotherapist is the name of the type of doctor that would be able to help you and give you treatment. By the way it is highly recommended that any should go with as many natural non-medicated methods as possible but this is best discussed with a healthcare professional.
Now, the type of help that a Psychotherapist has to offer is designed to help a person with the HOCD disorder to recognize the unreasonableness of the fearful situation that they are going through.
Here is a list of steps that a Psychotherapist would take in order to help a person that is struggling with an HOCD disorder:
1) Stopping the thoughts- A distraction that is used whenever the disorder occurs. Say the word “Stop”, and snap a rubber band that is worn on your wrist.
2) Staying busy- doing something around your home, getting involved outdoor, sports, just staying busy and doing something so that you won’t have time to think about the thoughts that Pop up in your mind.
3) Reversal of habit- Take in deep breaths to prevent anxiety.
4) Exposure Response Prevention (ERP) – Person is exposed to the situation that triggers the thought, but is kept from reacting in the way they normally would to the attack.
A person who is suffering from this disorder isn’t homosexual rather just having major insecurities that often are false thoughts that in reality can be deceiving. Well, I can tell that this kind of behaviour is very much cerebral and can be controlled. When a person is suffering from this kind of disorder, the feeling of something might be wrong and something does not fit in well, comes to the thought and may cause paranoia. The feeling is often caused with the following:
• Anxiety
• Confusion
• Stress
• Pain
• Paranoia
Here are some basic practices that an expert will handle to cure the disorder and thus helps in making them life a strain free life. Here are some few basic ones that would help your fight against the HOCD.
• Stopping the Thought – Well, in this kind of disorder the main thing that can beat you is the thought itself. If we can control the basic thoughts being manifest in our minds, we can help control this disorder by making it virtually or mentally stop. What you can do it say the word “Stop” and snap a rubber band in your wrist to inflict a minor pain to witch your focus in it, instead of thinking about the thought itself.
• Staying Busy – It is important to keep focus on certain activities to lure yourself away from the disorder itself. It is pretty much important that you do something, like clean the house, play some sports, play some video games, go out with friends, write something or just keep yourself busy so that you have something to do and the thoughts of it won’t go to come and invade your mind. Being busy keeps your mind busy as well and it will help you keep the thoughts away.
• Reversal of Habit – Well, in this kind of disorder, anxiety is your least best friend, it can be caused by thinking to much about the thoughts of the disorder, now to better facilitate your mind on keeping away from the anxiety is for you to take in some deep breaths to further prevent anxiety attacks, you should know how to rule your mind and calm it to a relax state in which can give you some good points on how to further give yourself the best habit to prevent it.
• ERP or Exposure Response Prevention – Basically the person who is suffering from this disorder is exhibited to the condition which triggers the habit. But with this it will be kept from reaching in the way the disorder normally attack. The basic thought is that with ERP you can prevent the attack by further exposure and response to the disorder itself. Like I said, this disorder is purely cerebral and only plays on our minds, controlling it in a way, can ease the troubles that you are already having.
Furthermore, to really cure this kind of disorder, you can basically go and consult a psychotherapist to really help you cope up in the situation itself. Having someone to keep your mind away from these attacks would truly help you in further handling the situation at hand. HOCD is not a disease it is a disorder and with that it is curable by professional help and would likely go away if you can fully control it all by yourself
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