45-year-old Revathi* felt that she was constantly cleaning her house even when there was nothing to clean and found herself spending over two hours in the bathroom often. She also had necrophobia i.e., a fear of dead bodies and places where dead bodies might be. She often dreamt of burnt dead bodies with their ashes settling on her wheat dough in the kitchen. This led her to deep clean her kitchen and avoid buying or consuming any wheat products. After a point, her fear escalated to a point where she refused to travel near a cemetery since she believed the air from the cemetery would infect the car. In a situation where she had to travel that way, she would thoroughly clean up and throw away the clothes she was traveling in.
She had reached out to a psychiatrist who prescribed medication she said she started hallucinating and therefore, stopped. Our psychologist at the Mind Research Foundation helped her process and work on herself and her fears in a few months. Once she started her therapeutic process, she mentioned that her biggest concern was sitting in the washroom for hours together affected her other responsibilities. Her thought patterns were addressed in a way where she wasn’t shamed for her obsessive thoughts and compulsions and encouraged to face her fears. This significantly reduced her rate of discomfort with her emotions and thoughts since she started accepting that it was okay to feel that way.
Even when the discomfort arose, she was taught breathing exercises and other mindfulness exercises so that she could ground herself and sit with the discomfort until it passed. Once she started improving, the psychologist could see that she was receptive and comfortable with feedback. Therefore, Revathi* was psycho-educated as to how energy, time, and efforts go to waste due to things causing her distress. She was also taught about her maladaptive thoughts and the connection that led to her unhealthy coping mechanisms.
After a few months of seeing drastic improvement where she could cope with her obsessive thoughts, our psychologist saw fit to have reinforcing sessions so that she could implement whatever she learned in the therapeutic setting in her everyday life. Once her presenting concerns were dealt with to an extent where her symptoms weren’t present on an everyday basis, the psychologist saw fit to terminate the sessions. Today, Revathi* leads a much better life where she can cope with her thoughts and not let them take over.
(*name changed for anonymity)
