These obsessions trigger immense anxiety, distress, and disruptions in a person’s life.
As a result, they often avoid seeing or being near children.
Treatment approaches often involve exposure and response prevention (ERP) therapy and mindfulness skills training.
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A person with POCD isdeeplydisturbed by their obsessions and does not enjoy them.
The sexual thoughts and feelings about children are pleasurable to the pedophile.
Symptoms of Pedophile OCD
OCD, by nature, is the doubting disorder.
The OCD brain has difficulty connecting to logic.
A pedophile knows that they are attracted to children without a doubt.
For example, “I am obsessed with Milk Bar ice cream!”
Psychologically speaking, this is the opposite of what an obsession really is.
An obsession is a persistent,unwanted thought/image/urge that causes distress.
While the most well-known compulsion of OCD is handwashing, many people with OCD performcovert mental compulsions.
Common compulsions of POCD include, but are not limited to:
What Causes Pedophile OCD?
Specific areas of the brain are impacted in those with OCD.
UCLA School of Medicine conducted PET scans to measure the brain activity of those with and without OCD.
When compared, the brain with OCD is much more hyperactive than the brain without OCD.
What about environmental factors such astrauma, pregnancy, other mental health conditions, etc.?
How Is Pedophile OCD Diagnosed?
Pedophile OCD is just a nickname and not an actual diagnosis.
Thediagnosisis obsessive-compulsive disorder, regardless of the content of the obsessions.
People with pedophile obsessions face an added layer ofshame and stigmathat may deter them from seeking treatment.
It is imperative to find an OCD specialist when seeking help to ensure an accurate diagnosis and effective treatment.
They understand the ego-dystonic nature of OCD and how it attacks what people value the most.
It involves exposing a person to feared stimuli while simultaneously cutting out compulsions.
ERP can facilitate:
OCD must be treated utilizing ERP, as behavioral change is necessary to recover.
People with OCD over-attend to their obsessions, which leads them to over-respond to them compulsively.
The brain then fires off more obsessions.
Analyzing and attempting to find meaning in the obsessions in talk therapy is one big compulsion.
The person is paying a talk therapist to over-attend to their obsessions, which only feeds the obsessive-compulsive cycle.
It can lead the person with OCD to believe that they are the content of their thoughts.
Mindfulness Skills Training
Mindfulnessskills training is also effective in treating OCD.
However, we are not in control of what we think and feel a lot of the time.
Attempts tosuppress thoughtsand feelings usually exacerbate the very things we are trying not to think or feel.
POCD can impair a persons functioning across various domains: work,sex,relationships, schooling, etc.
The new parent might avoid contact with their baby for fear of being triggered.
They get married, have children, travel, pursue their dream careers, etc.
National Institute of Mental Health.Obsessive-compulsive disorder.
Yale School of Medicine.What does an OCD brain look like?
Hezel DM, Simpson HB.Exposure and response prevention for obsessive-compulsive disorder: A review and new directions.Indian J Psychiatry.
2019;61(Suppl 1):S85-S92.
International OCD Foundation.Find Help directory.
