Breakups tend to cause intense emotional and physical pain that can be unbearable to the victims. There is a close association between emotional and physical pain caused by breakups. After breaking up, the body tends to release excess hormones that subject the body to fight or flight mode, which can cause physical pain, such as chest pains. This condition tends to be more intense when the bond between the partners is solid than when the relationship is in its initial stages. Additionally, the pain of a breakup may be extreme for a partner who has obsessions with the other. This paper argues that Hannah’s major stressor was Obsessive Lover Disorder, and the most effective Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is cognitive restructuring.
Hannah’s symptoms relate closely to obsessive love disorder that affects one’s ability to maintain relationships. This is a condition that makes one highly possessive of the other partner and requires their constant attention (Purba & Pohan, 2019). This symptom is depicted by Hannah’s allegations that most of her ex-boyfriends perceived her as needy. Moreover, being highly obsessed with her ex-boyfriend intensified the pain of the breakup to levels she could not control. Obsessive love disorder is closely linked to depression and anxiety disorders. Obsessions tend to trigger significant mood changes, trigger anxiety, and influence the victim to overreact (Purba & Pohan, 2019). One of the symptoms of obsessive love disorder is low self-esteem. Low self-esteem tends to develop when the obsessed partner feels their love is not being reciprocated with equal proportion. Hannah demonstrates low self-esteem by claiming that she is always considered romantic and falls in love easily. As a consequence, when the potential partner failed to meet her expectations, they started experiencing tantrums, such as arguments that often ended the relationship.
The obsessive disorder is influenced by several factors, including obsessive-compulsive disorder, attachment disorders, and borderline personality disorder. Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a mental condition that involves a combination of both compulsive traits and obsessive feelings (Robbins et al., 2019). People with this condition may reflect it in their relationship by being too possessive of their partners by regularly requiring reassurance of how their partners feel about them. Obsessive-compulsive behavior may develop due to past traumatic events. In Hannah’s case, this condition may have developed from her past relationship failures.
Additionally, Hannah’s obsessive love disorder may have been developed by the attachment disorder. This disorder tends to influence people’s ability to establish and sustain relationships. Attachment disorder influences people’s relationships by enabling them to develop anxieties regarding their state of relationships (Atkinson, 2019). As a result, partners with this type of disorder tend to experience insecurities that make them lose trust in their significant other. Regarding Hannah’s case, she may be experiencing an anxious attachment disorder, which makes her feel desperate for love and an emotional bond. For instance, she says she hates being single and tends to fall in love easily. An anxious emotional attachment disorder makes the victims preoccupied with their relationships, which may graduate to obsessions hence the obsessive love disorder.
Lastly, her condition may have been influenced by the borderline personality disorder. This mental condition subjects people to intense mood swings, making them frequent fluctuations in how they perceive themselves and relate with others (Trull et al., 2018). The borderline personality disorder may make people have trouble controlling their emotions and get angry at the slightest provocation. Additionally, people with this condition tend to experience a high degree of fear of being abandoned by their partners (Trull et al., 2018). Hannah may be experiencing this disorder type because she claims to be expecting intense excitement during the initial stage of her relationship, but the feeling changes to dram as the relationship progresses. Furthermore, the borderline personality disorder may have affected her ability to control anger, thus leading to heated arguments and the breakup with her boyfriend. Therefore, the extreme fear of abandonment, a significant symptom of borderline personality disorder, may have led to obsessive love disorder.
Addressing Hannah’s stressors requires employing the cognitive restructuring CBT therapy. This intervention is one of the most effective elements of CBT and has successfully addressed mental issues relating to depression and anxiety disorders (Ciharova et al., 2021). The cognitive restructuring intervention is the ideal mechanism to solve Hannah’s obsessive love condition because it aims to identify one’s negative thoughts and replace them with positive ones. Negative thoughts tend to create cognitive distortion that influences how people relate with others and their general perception of life. There are various cognitive distortions, including mental filters, all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralization, jumping to conclusions, and discounting the positive (Ciharova et al., 2021). These distortions affect the thinking of people hence influencing their behavior.
The cognitive restructuring technique enables the affected persons to accurately identify their cognitive distortion and influence an automatic replacement of positive thoughts. Additionally, people suffering from obsessions and anxiety may experience regular cognitive distortions, thus influencing their ability to maintain relationships (Ciharova et al., 2021). Hannah may be experiencing cognitive personalization distortion, which makes her blame her breakups on herself, yet many other factors are involved in a relationship. Therefore, it is essential to restructure her cognition to enable her to perceive herself positively and reduce self-blame, which tends to elevate the effects of anxiety and depression. The obsessive love disorder may be influencing the frequency she may be experiencing cognitive distortions. As a result of constant self-blame, Hannah finds it challenging to cope with the breakup, thus constantly experiencing pain.
The cognitive restructuring intervention to address Hannah’s condition needs to involve CBT concepts of emotions and behavior. The intervention combines various methods, including thought recording, disputing, questioning the patient’s assumptions, and decatastrophizing to identify the negative thoughts and replace them with positive automatic thoughts (Ciharova et al., 2021). The following process demonstrates the implementation of the plan to address Hannah’s issue using cognitive restructuring. Firstly, the negative thoughts are recorded, and the various factors that cause them are identified. This step is essential in identifying any patterns in the negative thoughts and how they occur.
Secondly, the factors causing the negative thoughts should be reviewed to identify the cognitive distortions. Thirdly, there is a need to determine whether the negative thoughts are valid based on factual evidence. The therapist should identify where the thoughts are based on facts or feelings. Additionally, there is a need to consider whether the patient is judging the situation generally or other factors that are not being considered. Lastly, therapist should guide the patient in replacing the negative thoughts with positive affirmations and thoughts that are based on facts rather than feelings (Ciharova et al., 2021). Therefore, the patient will begin perceiving situations positively and develop positive emotions with low anxieties. Additionally, the patient will develop calm behavior that enables them to handle situations composedly.
In conclusion, Hannah may be suffering from obsessive love disorder. This condition is influenced by other factors, such as attachment disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and borderline disorder. Various interventions can be employed to address her condition and enable her to develop a positive perception about herself. However, the most effective mechanism for providing solutions to her situation is the cognitive restructuring CBT technique. This intervention involves employing the CBT concepts of emotions and behavior. Employing the cognitive restructuring technique in Hannah’s case will enable her to develop a positive perception of her social life and learn to handle relationships calmly.
References
Atkinson, L. (2019). Reactive attachment disorder and attachment theory from infancy to adolescence: Review, integration, and expansion. Attachment & Human Development, 21(2), 205-217.
Ciharova, M., Furukawa, T. A., Efthimiou, O., Karyotaki, E., Miguel, C., Noma, H., & Cuijpers, P. (2021). Cognitive restructuring, behavioral activation and cognitive-behavioral therapy in the treatment of adult depression: A network meta-analysis. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 89(6), 563.
Purba, P., & Pohan, R. A. R. (2019). An analysis of obsessive love disorder. Web.
Robbins, T. W., Vaghi, M. M., & Banca, P. (2019). Obsessive-compulsive disorder: Puzzles and prospects. Neuron, 102(1), 27-47.
Trull, T. J., Freeman, L. K., Vebares, T. J., Choate, A. M., Helle, A. C., & Wycoff, A. M. (2018). Borderline personality disorder and substance use disorders: An updated review. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation, 5(1), 1-12.