Moral sensitivity
Harrison et al. (2012) found that individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder have more active brain regions responsible for decision-making when faced with moral dilemmas. The so-called moral dilemma refers to a moral dilemma in which the available behavioral options are not perfect, leaving people at a loss.
In Chinese culture, the most common moral dilemma is’ If both the mother and daughter-in-law fall into the river at the same time, who should you save first? ‘? Choosing which one to rescue first will leave regrets. Similar moral dilemmas include: assuming terrorists come to search, a group of people with their families hide in a basement, and no one can speak out to avoid exposing the target. But suddenly a baby is about to cry, should we make her cry loudly? (The consequence is that everyone will be killed by the terrorists after being discovered), or should we cover her mouth? (The consequence is that the baby will be suffocated to death)
Researchers have found through functional magnetic resonance imaging that when faced with such moral dilemmas, the orbitofrontal cortex (responsible for generating moral sense and making decisions) of OCD patients, especially the middle part, is significantly more active than normal individuals, indicating that they have higher moral sensitivity and experience more anxiety or struggle when faced with similar problems.
In some patients with compulsive thinking, this moral sensitivity is evident. The main concern with compulsive thinking is whether one’s impulsive thoughts will cause harm to family members, or whether one’s blasphemous thoughts will lead to punishment and retribution. Their own moral judgment on these ideas is as severe as the actual implementation of these behaviors, so they may avoid or suppress these ideas.
I often use this ancient Chinese saying to remind friends with compulsive thinking: “All evil and debauchery come first, regardless of one’s heart, and there is no perfect person in the world when it comes to one’s heart.” – For evil behavior, the standard of judgment is the actions (behavior), not the thoughts. If the thoughts are used as the basis, then there will be no perfect person in the world.
Relying heavily on imagination and confusing reasoning
Except for a few obsessive-compulsive thoughts that are almost delusional, most OCD patients have a sound self-awareness, which means they understand that their worries are absurd and unreasonable, but they still cannot control them. They will persist in these thoughts, which is related to their explanations of the appearance of these thoughts or the subjective meaning given to them, rather than the specific content of their worries.
Like individuals with obsessive-compulsive disorder, normal people may also have concerns about danger, aggression, disrespect, or vulgar thoughts in their minds, but the difference is that the latter can perceive these thoughts as meaningless and quickly ignore them; But people with OCD may think: if I have these thoughts, then these thoughts are the problem, so I keep thinking and pestering about them repeatedly.
Paradisis et al. (2015) suggest that this phenomenon is caused by inferential confusion. Give an example of confused reasoning: Why do people with cleanliness obsession and obsessive-compulsive disorder believe that the water in public swimming pools is unclean? Because chlorine gas was used for sterilization, there must be bacteria inside. It is obvious that there is a problem with this reasoning process, as they rely too much on subjective imagination and are disconnected from reality.
Patients no longer rely on sensory information and common sense, but act on their imagination, which is why they have to wash their hands desperately even when they see there is no dirt on them.
The self verification of reversing the cause is complete
There is an old lady in Indiana (a central plain state in the United States) who walks around her house every day. Her neighbor is curious and asks her:
Why do you work so hard every day circling around your house
Old lady: “Prevent tigers from harming people”
Neighbor: “But where do we have tigers here
Old lady: “Look, isn’t that because I walk like this every day
The thought process of the old lady in the story is as follows: she is constantly anxious due to her imagined fear of the tiger, so walking around the house becomes her way of relieving anxiety. She didn’t realize that her original fear was fake, and instead felt that it was because of her actions that the tiger didn’t come. By assigning such meaning to behaviors caused by anxiety, irrational behavior is reinforced.
This way of thinking is similar to those patients who are forced to wash their hands and undergo mandatory examinations.
Similar cognitive distortions can also be exploited by certain charlatans. Often some superstitions or cult groups promote the “end of the world”, and through systematic and closed brainwashing, this fear has made believers deeply believe, naturally asking: How can we help ourselves and our families survive in the end of the world? At this point, the leader said that one must recite a certain spell N thousand times (or dedicate property, body, etc.) in order to resolve the disaster. So the believers followed and followed it. As a result, on that day, the world was peaceful and the believers unanimously believed that reciting mantras (or other acts of dedication commanded by the leader) prevented the disaster from happening and saved the world.
In these self fulfilling erroneous thoughts, we have become slaves and lost our freedom.