Written by author and addiction counselor Richard Hartnett
The Overlap of Addiction and OCD
People in the active phase of addictions are usually obsessed with the craving to get high and feel compelled to use alcohol or drugs repeatedly despite the consequences. Not only does addiction have obsessive and compulsive features, but people who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) frequently resort to alcohol and drugs in an attempt to self-medicate their condition. The tools we have developed to deal with addictions, therefore, may also be useful for coping with OCD.
The Inner Tyrant
Perhaps our most important insight is that both conditions involve a tremendous struggle to overcome the inner Tyrant. With addictions we attempt to escape the oppression of the Tyrant by retreating into a chemical fantasy, and with obsessions and compulsions we try to placate and appease the Tyrant by fulfilling all its demands, down to the smallest detail.
Neither approach is successful, however, because the inner Tyrant always criticizes us harshly for getting high, nor is it ever satisfied with our subservience. So we need to develop a healthy and effective way to displace the Tyrant if we are to overcome these disorders. Here we will focus on the defective approach of appeasement. We recognize that our healing will entail a major transformation in our whole personality. We cannot afford to suffer the intense torments of the Tyrant any longer.
Identify The Problem
First we want to identify the side of our personality that tries to placate the Tyrant. It thinks if it obeys completely, then the Tyrant will leave us alone. So we could call this sub-personality of ours the Appeaser in us, or the Good Little Girl or Boy, or the Compliant One. There is no official name, so we can choose any name that seems to accurately describe this obedient and docile side of ourselves.
By giving it a name we begin to detach ourselves from it. This is necessary for us to observe and study it so that we can be liberated from the constant battle that ensnares us. It will also enable us to shift our allegiance over to the Healthy Self in us, the creative figure that inspires us to heal and grow. Our Healthy Self will also teach us how to challenge and confront the inner Tyrant, thereby restoring us with its confidence.
What Is The Inner Tyrant?
In normal development, we internalize the advice of various authority figures in our lives into a component of our psyche that is designed to protect us. This component may take the form of an inner Guide or a Healthy Self that conveys a constructive course for us to follow. Sometimes this component gets deformed and turns into a tyrannical figure that demands we behave a certain way. This deformation may happen when we are exposed to rigid authority figures who impose absolute rules upon us, rather than caring figures who encourage and inspire us. And it may also be due to a predilection on our part to interpret what we are advised to do as absolute commands. So, the inner Tyrant is a deformed version of our Healthy Self, and we need to undergo a major adjustment in order to reform this Tyrant into the Healthy Self it is supposed to be.
Since the inner Tyrant plays such an important role in our obsessions and compulsions, we will examine the methods it employs to manipulate and control us.
In various ways the Tyrant intimidates us so much that we become preoccupied with its influence on us. We cannot stop thinking of what might happen and we lose our ability to evaluate risks realistically. We become superstitious and think that by performing certain acts we will satisfy the Tyrant and be released from our worries.
The inner Tyrant has been living inside us for a very long time, and it knows us much better than we realize. It has managed to manipulate our feelings of anxiety and tension with superb skill, it knows just what buttons to push to terrify us. So far we have only tried to cope by acquiescing to whatever it wants, but this causes us to lose respect for ourselves. Now we want to step outside the role of the Appeaser and respond to the Tyrant with the courage we get from our Healthy Self.
Next week: How the Inner Tyrant Deceives Us (and how to outsmart it)
Richard G. Hartnett, MA, MS, LCADC is a former Jesuit priest who now lives with his wife, Kathy, by a lake in northwestern New Jersey. He has served as the chaplain at Hazelden New York, pastoral counselor at the Chemical Dependency Department of the International Center for the Disabled in NYC, and continuing care counselor at the outpatient Chemical Dependency Program of High Focus Centers in New Jersey. Currently he maintains a private practice in New Jersey. He is the author of The Presence at the Center, Renewing Your Fourth Step, The Three Inner Voices: Uncovering the Spiritual Roots of Addiction and Recovery, and Sobriety and Inspiration: Entrusting Ourselves to the Source of Our Healing and Creativity.
Click here to buy Richard Hartnett's book, "Sobriety and Inspiration."
