Stress And OCD

[taurean]

These are natural bedfellows. 

When we are feeling especially stressed, our resilience to OCD breaks down and symptoms will worsen. 

So what can we do about this? 

Well the best way is to tackle the source of the stress. There is plenty of self-help material out there to help people manage the stressors in their lives. 

But in addition we can deploy relaxation methods which can ease the effects of the stress and so aid our physical and mental health and our OCD. 

Again, plenty of guidance out there. 

But here is an example of perhaps the simplest method. 

My wife and I were at the doctors today, and the first attempt at a blood pressure reading produced a high response (she has "white coat hypertension" an anxiety and fear awfulising response to medical appointments). 

So my wife sat back in her chair and while the doctor wrote up her notes on the computer, she practised deep slow relaxing breathing. 

Result? After a couple of minutes her blood pressure had reduced significantly. 

Practising mindfulness meditation, mantra meditation, yoga, progressive muscle relaxation and others will also help lower blood pressure and stress. 

But do look at tackling the root cause of the stress. Solve that and the unpleasant high arousal of stress should drift away, with a noticeable knock-on benefit to our OCD if worsened by the stress. 

Edited February 13, 2019 by taurean

[helen10937]