Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) can be an exhausting experience. People may find themselves caught in cycles of intrusive thoughts, fears and doubts, followed by behaviours or mental rituals aimed at bringing relief or certainty.
Traditionally, treatment for OCD has focused on helping people gradually face their fears and reduce compulsive behaviours. These approaches can be highly effective. However, for some people, it can also be helpful to ask a deeper question:
What if the OCD developed as a way of coping with distress in the first place?
When coping strategies become stuck
From an attachment-informed perspective, some obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours can be understood as attempts to manage overwhelming feelings.
For example, checking, seeking reassurance, mentally reviewing events or trying to make things feel “just right” may temporarily reduce feelings of anxiety, uncertainty or distress. In this sense, OCD can be understood not as someone “being irrational”, but as the mind trying very hard to create a sense of safety or control.
For some people, these patterns may have developed in the context of earlier experiences where they felt unsafe, alone, overly responsible, criticised, or unable to rely on others for comfort and support. A strategy that once helped someone manage difficult emotions can eventually become automatic and, rather than helping, become a source of distress itself.
This does not mean that all OCD is caused by childhood trauma or difficult attachment experiences. OCD is complex and can develop for many different reasons. However, understanding the possible emotional experiences beneath OCD can sometimes provide another important avenue for treatment.
How attachment-informed EMDR may help
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) is a therapy that helps the brain process distressing or unresolved experiences. Attachment-informed EMDR takes particular notice of the emotional experiences, relationships and beliefs about ourselves that may sit beneath current difficulties.
Rather than focusing only on the OCD symptoms, therapy may explore questions such as:
- What feels so threatening about this thought or possibility?
- What does this fear mean about me?
- When have I felt this way before?
- What might my OCD be trying to protect me from feeling?
Sometimes, intrusive thoughts and compulsive behaviours are connected to deeper fears that developed at a young age, such as fears of being unsafe, responsible, bad, unacceptable or unlovable. The experiences that contributed to these fears may not always be clearly remembered or recognised as significant. Through EMDR, it may be possible to process some of the experiences and emotional responses that contributed to these beliefs.
The aim is not to take away a coping strategy, but to help the person develop a greater sense of safety and security so that the OCD no longer needs to work so hard to manage distress.
An integrative approach to OCD
CBT with Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) remains the most established psychological treatment for OCD. ERP helps people gradually face their fears and learn to tolerate the uncertainty and distress that OCD creates, without relying on compulsions or other strategies to reduce that distress.
However, OCD is not experienced in exactly the same way by everyone. For some people, it can be helpful to take an integrative approach, combining evidence-based OCD treatment such as ERP with EMDR and an understanding of attachment and earlier experiences.
This approach does not assume that childhood experiences caused the OCD, or that EMDR is a replacement for ERP. Instead, it allows us to consider whether there are underlying experiences, emotions or beliefs that may be contributing to the person’s difficulties and could benefit from processing.
For some people, addressing these underlying experiences can complement the work of changing the OCD cycle itself.
A compassionate approach
One of the things I value about this approach is that it encourages us to view OCD with curiosity and compassion. Instead of asking, “Why can’t I just stop doing this?”, we might begin asking:
“What has this part of me been trying to do for me?”
Understanding the protective function of OCD does not mean accepting that it should continue to control someone’s life. Rather, it can help us approach treatment with less shame and more understanding.
For some people, looking beneath the OCD can be an important part of recovery, understanding not only how to break the OCD cycle, but also why these particular fears and patterns developed in the first place.
More Information
If you’re curious about whether this approach is right for you, please get in touch.
You can also read my article on attachment-informed EMDR here.
For professionals interested in training on attachment-informed EMDR for OCD, a good course can be found here.
Published Aug 2026
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