why we need to talk about this disorder”

Since a young age, Lise Mazza has suffered from impulse phobias. Not always well known to the general public, this psychological disorder of the OCD family results in constant flashes, thoughts and images that are very intrusive, obscene, violent and sometimes morbid towards oneself and others. People who suffer from it are afraid of committing serious, dangerous and reprehensible acts, and are in an anxious and painful struggle day and night against this idea. These fears are not a sign of taking action, but are a sign of obsessive worry.

“Impulse phobias are really the vision of harming someone, whether it’s murder, whether it’s sexual violence, whether it’s physical violence. There is constantly this hyper-anchored fear to harm yourself or someone else when you don’t want to.”, explains Lise Mazza. Impulse phobias may be accompanied by comorbidity. “I also have borderline personality disorder”she reveals.

Where do impulse phobias come from?

“It’s not really genetic. My family doesn’t suffer from it,” assures the young woman. “It can be triggered by trauma and it can affect anyone, men as well as women,” she adds. For Lise, the first impulse phobias arrived when she was “very young”.

“It was then only focused on my parents. I saw myself crashing them, but it was also focused on me. As we lived upstairs, I really saw myself throwing myself off the balcony. I also saw the scenario of my funeral, the mourning and sadness of my parents, which immediately stuck to my impulse phobias“, she says.

How do you know if you suffer from impulse phobias?

“Everyone has had thoughts like: ‘If I ever push someone on the subway…’ Those are normal thoughts.”, begins Lise Lazza. We are talking about impulse phobia “when you either have an avoidance strategy or, like me, if it’s recurring”she continues.

“Thoughts accompany you all day, all week. You don’t just think about them from time to time, they are thoughts that pursue you constantly, sometimes even in your dreams”, she also specifies. “Whether tonight the murder of someone or the vision of me in prison, I have these thoughts every day”.

Can we get rid of our impulse phobias?

“The older I get, the more I manage to manage them”indicates Lise Mazza, who affirms that her impulse phobias are “less invasive today”. For example, immersing himself in his work allows him, for a moment, to “cut away from these thoughts”. “But it remains momentary”, she nuances. Her desire to be a mother, too, pushes her to fight against this disorder. “That’s why I’m doing all this work on myself: to try to be as healthy and righteous as possible for my child when he arrives.”she confides.

“People who don’t necessarily talk about impulse phobias but who experience them on a daily basis may tell themselves that they are crazy, that they may be murderers”, laments the young woman. But this is not the case ! what Lise advises to people who might be concerned, “It’s to go and talk to a professional, because you are not alone, you are not crazy, it’s just a small disturbance in the brain that can be resolved by talking”, she says. Eventually, if there are associated disorders, medication may be a solution, but is not obligatory. Above all, “discuss it, because the more you talk about it, the more you will exorcise these disorders and the less they will be present in your head”recommends Lise, specifying that people are generally understanding when we “explains the context to them”.

Section head Society / Psychology / Couple /

Rights of women and children, violence, feminism, gender, discrimination, parenthood, education, psychology, health, sexuality…. Joséphine loves deciphering all the social issues that drive our world today. She you …