KEG cards (Keys to Emotional Growth), Anxieties and OCD

KEG cards, anxiety disorders and OCD in these crazy Corona virus times.

 Obsessive-Compulsive and Anxiety Disorders are mental health conditions that are common in these turbulent times. These disorders in the COVID-19 pandemic need to be coped with in a positive and original way. OCD is a neuropsychiatric condition marked by distressing and intrusive thoughts, impulses, or images (obsessions) and/or behaviors or mental rituals (compulsions) that are performed repeatedly in an effort to reduce the feelings of distress associated with the obsessions. We know that the time taken up by intrusive thoughts and compulsions is excessive and impairs the functioning of the individual and their family.

Now with the fear of contamination by the Corona virus some common symptoms are obsessions with washing and cleaning compulsions; preoccupation with symmetry, ordering, arranging, repeating, and counting compulsions; hoarding; harm (aggressive) obsessions and checking. Treatment usually involves Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy. In addition, I am suggesting using Pictures and guiding questions from KEG cards. The client chooses pictures and creates narratives that express his memories and feelings.

While presenting his/her narratives, the client describes the symptoms of his anxiety and/or OCD; while doing so, he is reducing his SUDs (subjective unit of distress), facing his symptoms and behavior, normalizing them and accepting them. He also practices coping with and accepting uncertainties by making the narratives more positive each time he tells it. The individual changes pictures, changing content, size and position slowly in small steps. With each new and more positive narrative that the client creates, he is normalizing and accepting his anxieties and OCD behaviors, changing them slowly with a de-sensitizing technique, becoming more used to these feelings and behaviors, and not fighting them.

The client describes the figures, events and objects in the pictures he chose using present continuous tense and first person, e.g. "I am standing in a forest and afraid that a wild animal will attack and eat me ...." He then creates a narrative describing how he overcomes these wild animals or negative thoughts. He continually uses present tense and first person.

The individual also creates stories about the future and visualizes positive events and feelings. The individual feels he is overcoming difficult obstacles and reducing his anxious thoughts and feelings. With each narrative the client talks about his SUDs, which is constantly becoming smaller, because he constantly is creating a more positive narrative by choosing more positive pictures and changing the story to feel better with it.