Obsessive Checking

30 Year Old Man

He volunteered to touch the floor with his hand – something he could never have done before treatment without immediately rushing to wash his hands.  After doing so, I asked whether he now needed to wash, and he said “No, why bother”?!!”

This young man presented with a severe case of obsessive hand washing and had the need to make continuous checks on everything from whether a door is locked, the oven turned off, and that everything, especially ornaments, are properly in their place.

He told me he’d had this problem for many years and it was now becoming far worse and controlling his life. On questioning, he explained that when he was only a small boy of five or six, he was continually frightened and traumatised by his parents who were always rowing with each other.  His father would become extremely angry with him if he interfered with various articles and ornaments around the house.  As he had a younger brother he also had to keep checking that his brother had not moved any ornaments before his father came in because he was very frightened of his father’s anger.

I treated his trauma as a small boy when parents were arguing, and then his extreme fear of his father finding ornaments out of place.  Both of these traumatic memories were quickly resolved using the appropriate TFT sequences.

When my client arrived, I noticed he continued to wear his cap in the house.  Now, however, he took it off to reveal a large bald patch on the front of his head.  He explained he had literally caused this himself by pulling and rubbing his hair and was very ashamed, embarrassed and anxious about it.  Further treatment for this resulted in the removal of his shame and embarrassment.  WhenMary, my wife, came in to meet him later, he willingly took off his cap proving that all distress and upset had completely gone.

Finally, I addressed his endless hand washing. His need to wash was now very great and his underlying anxiety driving this obsessive need was treated.  At great speed his need to indulge in hand washing totally disappeared and he sat looking bewildered and searching for explanations!

I sent him away very happy and aware of being truly relaxed for the first time in as long as he could remember.  He touched the floor once more because he wanted to and did not wash his hands the whole time he was with me.

This shows the incredible ability of TFT to address severe and debilitating Obsessive Behavior.  And how important it is to discover first if there is a root cause, (which in this case was created by childhood fear and trauma), of the whole problem and treat those emotional upsets before working with the outcome – the presenting problem, the need continually to wash his hands.