Some Compulsions Are Expressions of Psychological Needs

There are endless motivations for human behaviour, from the basic drives for food and sex to more complicated ones, such as compassion, envy and anger. But none of these explain behaviours that we feel irresistibly, often inexplicably, driven to engage in – compulsions. >>we help many clients who deal with ocd

Some compultions are expressions of psychological needs that come from a need that is desperate and tortured. They may bring relief, but they bring little enjoyment, and while one part of our brain desperately wishes to stop them, another is afraid of stopping.

We describe as “compulsive” someone who reads, tweets, steals, cleans, watches birds, lies, blogs, shops, checks Facebook, eats or Snapchats etc not only frequently but with the urgency of one who is not fully in control of their behaviour. To read more from Sharon Begley, click here.