One of the most successful treatments for OCD is described in Jeffrey M. Schwartz’s book Brain Lock by physician Jeffrey M. Schwartz, MD. It is currently being utilized at academic treatment institutions all over the globe. Dr Jeffrey M. Schwartz is the inventor of this drug. Neuroimaging studies have revealed that this strategy may effectively alter the brain’s chemical makeup without relying on medication. Patients use cognitive self-therapy and behavioural modification to cope with their obsessive thoughts. The symptoms of OCD may be alleviated by doing this. This is done as a treatment for OCD to decrease its harmful consequences. To put it another way, they’re trying to repair brain injury using the healing power of thinking. In this article, you can easily download the Brain Lock PDF version
| Book | Brain Lock: Free Yourself from ObsessiveCompulsive Behavior |
| Author | Jeffrey M. Schwartz |
| Publisher | Harper Perennial |
| Language | English |
| Pages | 276 |
Summary of Brain lock
Obsessions
When one has an obsession, unwelcome, unpleasant, and often painful thoughts and pictures dominate their thoughts and ideas. The Latin verb “to besiege” is most likely where the word “obsession” first appeared and where it stems from. One example of “obsessive thinking” is a thought that continues running through your head and is driving you crazy. Even if you want it, it won’t disappear in a way you can control. You are powerless to change the situation. These concepts nearly invariably elicit unfavourable responses from people. As with other horrifying ideas, there is no way to get rid of them; instead, they keep returning to bother you. This sets them apart from other harmful concepts. How much of your hate for thinking that these things are real? Imagine that after seeing a beautiful woman, all you can think about is her. It doesn’t meet the criteria for compulsive behaviour in this instance. Rumination describes garbage, anything that is not right, normal, or even nice. If Calvin Klein’s marketing department had understood the meaning of the word “obsession,” the perfume would have been branded “Rumination.”
We received the wrong message
These obsessions may be disregarded even if they never go gone. This is a result of the obsessions’ tenacity. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is caused by an imbalance in brain physiology (OCD). This wasn’t the case in the past. Four of the most crucial parts of the brain may get trapped together, a condition known as “Brain Lock.”
Consequently, the brain produces incorrect information, which the affected person finds difficult to recognise as false rapidly. The putamen and the caudate nucleus combine to form the caudate nucleus, one of the brain’s most significant signal-processing regions. The caudate nucleus is also known as the cingulate gyrus. This centre may be likened to the gearbox of an automobile. The caudate nucleus is responsible for the brain’s frontal lobe, sometimes referred to as the “thinking region of the brain,” functioning as an automatic transmission. The caudate nucleus and putamen, which act as “automatic transmission” for the brain region that controls bodily motions, may be used to synchronise cognition and movement very well. Make sure the portion of the brain that controls bodily movement sends information to the caudate nucleus.
A person with OCD can switch gears, but since the caudate nucleus in their brain cannot do so, impulses from the front of the brain end up becoming stuck there. To put it another way, a difficulty with automatic brain communication results in the symptoms listed above. As a result, when this occurs, the brain becomes “stuck in gear” and cannot go on to the next idea. Your brain may tell you, “You need to wash your hands again,” even if there isn’t a good reason to do so.
In such a case, you could still wash your hands. You know it’s important because your brain tells you so. Your brain can urge you to check the lock again even though you don’t see anything, and you’ll find yourself doing it again because you can’t get rid of the nagging feeling that the door isn’t properly secured. A person could suddenly feel the urge to count things or read the same text again even though there is no evident reason for it. With the use of behavioural therapy techniques, you may change how you respond to these thoughts and urges and how your brain behaves generally. You have full control over this. These techniques facilitate a more seamless adjustment of the brain’s automatic transmission, which over time results in a steady decrease in disruptive cravings. After discovering that a biochemical imbalance brought on her condition in her brain, Dottie, a UCLA patient, had an epiphany and coined the phrase, “It’s not me—my it’s OCD.” The mere awareness that this is true will provide great comfort to those suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
Obsessive-compulsive disorder patients spend endless hours each day doing meaningless rituals, such as washing their hands a thousand times or repeatedly scrutinising the same items. OCD sufferers may even fear that they are going crazy since they are aware that their behaviour is unusual. The people’s personalities or beliefs will almost definitely conflict with this behaviour. Until you master the Four-Step Self-Treatment Method, it is hard to stop responding to the brain’s false warnings. They haven’t been able to perfect this strategy, however.
Compulsions
In a fruitless attempt to get rid of the worries and phobias that their obsessions have ingrained in them, OCD patients engage in compulsive behaviours, also known as compulsions. Examples of these behaviours include cleaning, counting, and hand washing. To cope with the overwhelming intensity of obsessive thoughts and emotions, OCD patients are forced to engage in compulsive behaviour. OCD sufferers may know that their compulsions to wash, check, touch, or repeat numbers are useless, yet they may be so strong as to overcome even the best-trained brains. Participating in ludicrous behaviour has the terrible impact of causing a series of unfavourable side effects for the participant. While engaging in more compulsive behaviours may provide some momentary relief, as compulsive behaviours become stronger, these thoughts and feelings tend to become even angrier and more demanding. This is true, notwithstanding the possibility that it offers just transient relief. Eventually, in addition to the fixation, the person develops an obsessive behaviour, which may be quite embarrassing. It’s hardly surprising since many people with OCD believe they are hopeless until they seek professional treatment. Due to the pressure and stress of their circumstance, they could even consider killing themselves. It’s possible that the years of traditional therapy did not make their degree of doubt any more intense.
Conclusion
Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) must learn to reprogram their minds better, so they do not instinctively believe unsettling experiences. A crucial stage in our development is realising that our feelings are false. Our responses to the sensations will progressively change, and eventually, we will utterly reject them. We have accepted the realities by looking at the situation from a fresh perspective. By doing this, we enable ourselves to be receptive to other approaches to the issue. We realise that even the strongest and most disturbing emotions are ultimately transient and that if we do nothing to address them, they will eventually go away on their own. Negative emotions often become stronger and eventually take over our lives when we give in to them. This is something we should be considering at all times. We will have succeeded if we can identify the urge and then successfully fight it.
As we go through the Four-Step Method of behavioural self-treatment, this book gives us a vivid idea about the foundation for personal mastery and the capacity to control one’s psyche. We are becoming more capable of managing our own lives, for instance. Aggressively opposing OCD-related thoughts, feelings, and desires may lead to a strong sense of self-worth and independence. For example, now that the system has been improved, we will be able to make choices that align with our beliefs and objectives. Understanding how we empower ourselves to battle OCD and the method by which we empower ourselves to battle OCD gives us a greater comprehension of how to recover our life. This activity, which is beneficial for our health and wellbeing, also has the pleasant side effect of positively modifying the chemical composition of our brains. You could be on your way to real self-reliance if you choose this path to gain a greater grasp of what is in your own best interests.
