OCD Triggers: Exploring What Sets OCD Off
You can’t touch a public toilet, let alone a public door handle. The fear of touching the billions of germs from thousands of people gives you so much anxiety that just thinking about it makes you wash your hands. It has gotten to the point that you rarely leave your house, opting to work from home despite loving the office you work for.
You are not alone in your feelings, and many get to the point where their obsessive-compulsive disorder and anxiety cause them harm. In 2022, over 12,000 emergency department visits were from mental health disorders in Hillsborough County. This includes intense anxiety disorders such as obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Clean Recovery Centers knows that OCD triggers can be a large part of ongoing anxiety, leading to sleep disturbances and disrupting daily life. Let’s talk about OCD triggers, what causes them, and how to manage them in the future.
OCD Triggers and the Affect in Your Brain
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition characterized by persistent, intrusive thoughts (obsessions) that lead to repetitive behaviors or mental acts (compulsions), which are performed to alleviate stress and anxiety. Understanding how OCD triggers affect the brain can provide valuable insight into this complex condition.
Research has been studying how OCD and triggers affect the brain. Those with OCD have areas of the brain that are more active, including the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The OFC is responsible for decision-making and evaluating potential outcomes while the ACC is in charge of cognitive functions with emotional processing. In someone with OCD, when a trigger is experienced, these two areas overreact, causing obsessive-compulsive thoughts and actions to occur.
Pinpointing What Sets OCD in Motion
OCD can be triggered by various factors, and pinpointing these can be valuable for managing symptoms. For some, triggers may be related to fears of contamination, symmetry, harm, or taboo thoughts. Others may experience OCD triggers connected to specific life events or environments. Stress often plays a pivotal role in activating OCD symptoms, but the triggers themselves can vary between each person.
Triggers are often related to environmental, emotional, or physical factors. Let’s explore where these stem from further.
When Your Surroundings Spark OCD: Environmental Triggers
Environmental triggers can play a large role in experiencing OCD symptoms. These triggers come from the person’s surroundings and cause obsessive thoughts and/or compulsive behaviors. Examples include a cluttered home triggering a person with OCD who fears disorganization, while public spaces may exacerbate concerns about germs and contamination.
Changes to the person’s environment, such as moving to a new city or starting a new job, can also heighten OCD symptoms. Even seemingly minor changes, like rearranged furniture or a new coworker, may disrupt their sense of control and trigger compulsions. Recognizing these environmental triggers is essential for minimizing stressors and preventing worsening OCD symptoms.
The Emotional Triggers For OCD
Emotional dysregulation can trigger OCD. Feelings of stress, guilt, shame, or sadness can increase anxiety levels, triggering intrusive thoughts. Forgetting a simple task or not taking care of the dishes promptly can cause emotional turmoil and trigger OCD.
For many, emotional triggers stem from unresolved past trauma. Feeling the same emotions that were felt during a traumatic event can set off OCD compulsions. This will continue until the trauma is resolved, which can take time through therapy and coping techniques.
Physical Triggers That Fuel OCD Thoughts
Physical triggers for OCD involve senses such as touch, taste, smell, and hearing. The feeling of a certain material on the skin can provoke obsessive thoughts. Hearing a specific sound or voice can trigger anxiety, leading to compulsions. These feelings can be internal as well, such as feeling your heart race from anxiety. The compulsion would be constantly checking vital signs and fearing that something is medically wrong. Physical triggers can stem from past trauma and associated fear. Past memories and trauma can be tied to objects or materials, and the associated fear of the object can play through the mind on a feedback loop, causing obsessive-compulsive thoughts and behaviors.
Most Commonly Experienced OCD Triggers
While OCD triggers can manifest in various ways, there are some that are more commonly experienced. Let’s look at how these triggers lead to obsessions that then lead to compulsions:
| Trigger | Obsession | Compulsion |
|---|---|---|
| Touching something considered “unclean” such as a doorknob | Thoughts of dirtiness and contamination | Frequent hand washing, avoiding public areas |
| Seeing something uneven or counting an odd number | Thoughts of lack of symmetry | Recounting the number of steps they took, counting while performing tasks, moving objects to look symmetrical |
| Forgetting to answer a text message | Thoughts of shame and fear of losing the relationship | Sending multiple apologetic texts, stressing about losing a friend/loved one |
| Getting diagnosed with the flu | Thoughts of serious illness, fear of death | Frequent checking of health metrics, going to the doctor more often |
The trigger causes the obsessive thoughts to run through the person’s mind constantly until the compulsion can be performed. This results in feelings of high anxiety that can cause panic and emotional stress. OCD triggers can overlap with each other as well, further worsening distress.
Breaking Down OCD Triggers and the Cycle of Compulsions
Understanding how OCD triggers become the cycle of compulsions is key to breaking the hold. When the person encounters a trigger, it generates obsessive thoughts, which lead to intense anxiety. This anxiety compels the person to perform specific rituals or behaviors to calm the stress. Although these compulsions may provide temporary relief, they reinforce the obsessive-compulsive cycle by validating the brain’s false alarms. By learning your specific triggers, you can begin the process of learning how to handle them.
Mastering the Art of Managing OCD Triggers
Learning to manage OCD triggers will involve various techniques that can be learned from therapies and coping skill development. Let’s look at common practices when it comes to getting to know your OCD triggers.
Spotting the Warning Signs: Recognizing OCD Triggers
The first step to managing your OCD triggers is to recognize the signs leading up to them. These signs include:
- An increase in intrusive thoughts or anxiety
- A sudden urge to perform repetitive behaviors
- An increase in anxiety such as chest pain and rapid heart rate
- Avoidance of specific situations, objects, or people
If you notice these signs are happening during a certain event or situation, make note of the trigger. Once you are able to recognize what is causing your triggers, you will better understand how to manage them moving forward.
Stress-Relieving Strategies for OCD Relief
Stress is a key driver to OCD triggers, and having techniques to help during anxiety and intrusive thoughts. One way to accomplish this is through meditation and grounding techniques. The 3-3-3 method involves naming 3 things you see, 3 sounds you hear, and moving 3 body parts. This brings you back into the moment and helps reduce stress.
Another stress-relieving strategy is mindful breathing. The 4-7-8 method helps relieve stress and anxiety by focusing on breathing. Breathe in for 4 seconds, hold it for 7 seconds, and exhale for 8 seconds. Repeating these steps for a minute or two will help settle the heart and relax the muscles, relieving anxiety symptoms.
Utilizing Help for OCD
Overcoming OCD triggers, thoughts, and behaviors can take help from mental health and medical professionals. One of the most effective ways to treat OCD triggers is through exposure and response prevention (ERP). ERP is a branch of cognitive behavioral therapy that exposes the person to fear in a safe environment, with the goal being to stay in the feared situation without following through with the compulsion. This shows the person that there is no true fear or negative consequence that happens. While this is possible to do on your own, having a therapist well-versed in OCD treatment will give you a safe space to practice these techniques, increasing their success rate.
Getting OCD Treatment in Hillsborough County, FL
OCD triggers can take away from your daily life, causing interference with relationships and important events. Treatment for OCD will help you learn how to manage these triggers and reduce feelings of anxiety and stress. Through therapies, coping skill development, and medications, OCD symptoms will become less and less, allowing you to move forward with your life and your future.
If you or someone you love feels like OCD is taking over, help is available right now. Clean Recovery Centers offers a full-spectrum, OCD program utilizing our three-phase approach. Our licensed therapists will help you learn your diagnosis and explore treatment plans that will fit your needs and goals. Call us today at (888) 330-2532 to learn more about our mental health program.
Get clean. Live clean. Stay clean.
