Do you get obese with other people around you? Why do people obsess over things? Have you ever been stressed all day thinking about one thing? The answer to all questions is due to fixation.
Fixation is a persistent focus of the id’s pleasure that seeks at energies at an earlier stage of psychosexual development. The occurrence of fixation happens due to when there is an issue or conflict in a psychosexual stage that remains unresolved and leaving the individual focused on the stage and unable to move to the next step or stage of the movement.
Well at the end of the article you will opt to know what is all about fixation psychology and the ways to stop fixation.
What Is Fixation Psychology?
Fixation is a persistent focus of the id’s pleasure that seeks at energies at an earlier stage of psychosexual development. The occurrence of fixation happens due to when there is an issue or conflict in a psychosexual stage that remains unresolved and leaving the individual focused on the stage and unable to move to the next step or stage of the movement.
The concept of fixation is founded by Freudian research and theory. It is all about having an obsessive interest in or feeling about someone or some feelings. Fixation psychology is related to having attachments to people or things that persist from childhood to adulthood.
As per Freud, the persistent fixation was due to unresolved issues in the previous stage of personality development. The obsessive thoughts are rarely positive. It is often related to fear or dis-stressing emotion. Obsessive thoughts are the landmark of obsessive compulsive disorder.
Some of the examples of obsessive thoughts are –
- Fear of getting sick.
- Thinking about hurting a loved one or a stranger.
- Focusing on some type of aggressive sexual act
- Need for organization or symmetry.
- Worry over little things
[Read: Causes Of Teenage Depression]
How Does Fixation Develop?
Freud theorized that fixations are caused by our ids, or personalities, in order to focus on energies that create pleasure at an earlier stage of psychosocial development. As per his theory is that one has to resolve an issue or conflict in one stage before it would be possible to move onto the next stage.
A person develops through a series of a psycho-sexual stages in which the libidinal energies become to focus on different areas of the body. Freud believed that the development of a healthy personality is due to the result of successfully completing each of the psychosexual stages.
At each point in development, an individual face a conflict that must be resolved in order to move successfully on to the next stage. How this conflict is resolved plays a role in the formation of adult personality in the later phases of life.
This is a stage where the person remains essentially “stuck”. or in other words, it is called fixed at that point of development. The fixation could be a result of a particular stage left as a dominant impression on an individual personality. To resolve the psychosexual conflict it requires a considerable amount of the libido’s energy.
It is believed that if the energy is expanded at a particular point of development then the event of the stage may ultimately leave a stronger impression on that individual personality.
Examples Of Fixation Psychology:
There are three forms of fixation as per Sigmund Freud
1. Oral Fixation:
This is the initial stage of psychosexual development. This is the stage where the individual doesn’t resolve the primary conflict also. Some of the examples of oral fixation do involve nail-biting, smoking, gum-chewing, and excessive drinking.
2. Anal Fixation:
This is the second stage of psychosexual development. This is the stage that focused on controlling the bowel movements. Here comes with the anal-retentive and anal expulsive personalities.
In anal-retentive, the individuals experience overly strict and harsh potty training as the children and may grow to be overly obsessed with orderliness and tidiness. Whereas in Anal-expulsive the individuals experience very lax potty training that is being resulted from being very messy and disorganized with a course of time.
3. Phallic Fixation:
This is the third stage of psychosexual development. This stage of development primarily focused on identifying same-sex parents. It is the stage where the opposite sex get attracted to each other. Some of the examples of fixation during this stage as per Freud are overly vain, exhibitionistic, and sexually aggressive, etc.
How To Stop Fixation:
Here are few ways to get over fixation-
1. Stop Shaming Yourself:
The first and foremost thing you need to do is to stop fixation is that you have to learn to accept your thought, no matter what they are. Try to stop feeling like you need to push these thoughts the way away.
I know these thoughts are not in your control, but acceptance is crucial. These thoughts are not something you should expect to control. Learn to accept this thought and get over fixation.
2. Write Out The Persistent Thought:
Here is another way of stopping fixation. Try to write out the negative thought in a paper or dairy. This will help the mind to focus less on the distressing thoughts when you are having an opportunity to express it differently.
3. Get Used To The Anxiety:
This is one of the harder and simpler forms of ways to stop fixation. The people suffering from obsessive thought should put a tendency to live in that anxiety. As per the studies the compulsions have a tendency to provide too quickly a solution to the obsessions. This leads to cause the individual to avoid actually circumstances to a deal with the anxiety. So the compulsions actually strengthen the obsessive anxiety in a fixation.
4. Causes Of Your Own Anxiety:
Before you get used to your anxiety it is very much important to figure out the cause of the anxiety that is leading your obsession with thoughts. Make a list of things that makes you much of distress.
This is known as behavioral habituation. If you experience the anxiety thought before then you will be less stressful. It is often believed that this practice can be done under the presence of a professional. As this type of technique may not be right for everyone.
5. Turn Negativity Into Positive Action:
This is a healthy way to get over the fixation. Try to negate the negative thoughts as possible as you can. This is all about the mental equivalent. This doesn’t mean you will push the anxiety away.
Make sure you take a break and walk away from the immediate stress. Put the positive action in order to what to do first, this will help to deal with the situation in a positive way.
6. Don’t Indulge the Level Of Futility:
Futile tactics are insidious. This keeps on coming in mind over and over. The difficulty is that that individual has wired the brain which is for setting down a groove that is easy to fall down. The grooves can be erased by the new formation of a groove.
7. Expand Your Awareness:
Having a close and narrow mind doesn’t make it feel good. So whenever we delete any kind of inner discomfort the very first thing is to open your mind of awareness. The more you have open mindedness the more you can accept the people around you.
Then only you can start tolerating the people. You can also see the good side of the people and stop waiting for something new to blame and dislike them for. Open mindedness can solve all kinds of problems that are resulted from narrow mindedness.
8. Take Full Responsibility:
It is the mind who takes it best and worse of dealing with things around us. It is the mind that holds the greatest promise and the greatest threats. The mind too also creates our reality. Our minds are used to projecting blame and judgment about others.
So we have to train our minds. The power to create your reality is with us only. This can begins with building a more mature self within us as well as opening the ways to live the greatest joys.
These are simple ways that work great to get rid of fixation. It may take time and some practice. But you can change the habitual patterns through the points I have mentioned above of the article to get rid of fixation.
