Impulse phobia: what it is and how it is treated

Impulse phobia can occur alone or be part of OCD. In both cases it means that an individual feels an intense fear of being carried away by some aggressive impulse.

Impulse phobia It is the fear of following an impulse, losing control and harming others or oneself. Some diagnostic classifications consider impulsive phobia as a variant of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). It is an intrusive thought that invades the subject’s mind. So he performs some type of behavior or thought (compulsion) to reduce the anxiety that that thought causes. Here’s how to identify the drive phobia and how it is treated.

How to identify impulsive phobia?

From a professional point of view, the drive phobia It is a variant of OCD. However, regardless of considering it as a type of OCD or as a phobia in itself, we talk of a diagnosis characterized by intense fear of one’s own impulses. The main clinical characteristics that define this disorder are:

Invasion of thoughts that revolve around following an impulse and losing control.The content of this thought has to do with the anticipation of aggression. Both to oneself or to others.An intense fear from the mere fact of experiencing such thoughts.Carry out preventive or avoidance behaviors to prevent these types of thoughts from becoming reality.

What are the most frequent impulses?

The people who come for consultation and are Diagnosed with impulsive phobia report thoughts that involve harming themselves. Likewise, they are plagued by thoughts about harming their family members (partner, parents or children). For example, jumping off the balcony, swerving the car while driving on the highway or jumping into the subway. In all cases, a fusion between thought-action is observed in the patient. The development process of impulsive phobia is:

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The person has a thought or image where they “see themselves” carrying out an impulse and losing control of herself. That thought or image is valued as catastrophicThus, The person uses all the psychological resources they have to “delete” those thoughts or images. Since focusing on thought is an erroneous strategy, anxiety increases. Therefore, anticipatory thoughts become even more powerful. Since you cannot control the content of your thoughts, reinforces the power of the idea that alludes to the loss of control, intensifying the feeling of fear.

Most frequent consequences of impulsive phobia

Any type of OCD or phobia causes a significant decrease in the patient’s quality of life. This occurs as a result of the person trying to control fear and avoid anxiety-inducing situations. Thus, progressively and without realizing it, he ends up giving up different aspects of his personal life, consuming a good part of his energy trying control fear.

Likewise, one of the main consequences of the drive phobia It is the feeling of having the enemy within oneself. As it is an egodystonic disorder (there is a dissonance between what the person thinks and wants), the self-demand to control thoughts is very high. At the same time that the person has the feeling that they are fighting against themselves.

That is, obsession and fear of the impulse invade the patient’s attention. But he believes that, since it is something external, he can control it. By not being able to do so, he feels that he or she is the one who causes the obsession and therefore the feeling of “fighting against what my head tells me.” Over time, this internal struggle leads to anxiety and depression.which must also be addressed in therapy.

What is the treatment for impulsive phobia?

Treatment for impulsive phobia, whatever the object of obsession (regardless of whether it is harming oneself or others) is psychological. In addition, it can be combined with psychopharmacological treatment. Broadly speaking, the therapeutic approach for this phobia follows the lines of the treatment used for cases of OCD. psychotherapy empowers the patient to achieve changes on the following points:

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Understand the cause of the problem and its current operation.Assess and identify the solutions attempts to resolve the disorder and that have failed. Enhance the Tried solutions that do work.That the patient is able to understand how your mind works and your disorder. And thus take control of what happens to you.Disconnect the person from your thoughts. Understand that thinking something does not mean doing it. Nor does it increase the probability that it will occur.Recover life aspects that the person values but has neglected.Prevent relapse and consolidate the psychological tools acquired.

Finally, it should be noted that, although there are different types of psychological approaches to design treatment in cases of impulsive phobia, There are only studies on the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral strategies. In this sense, Bonet, J. (2001) highlights the importance of confront the fear until you habituate the emotional response, preventing you from avoiding the thought that generates discomfort.

Impulse phobia: final considerations

If you suffer drive phobiaKeep in mind that this is a psychological problem. Therefore, The sooner you face it, the sooner you will free yourself from it.. No choice; Fears only disappear if you face them directly. So, in these cases, the psychologist is your best ally. You can make two decisions: not face the situation and let everything continue as it is. Or, on the other hand, face your fears and discover what is happening in your case.