I don’t mean to ask for reassurance but what’s the difference between having POCD and the real thing

I'm not sure if you mean the difference between pedophilia and POCD or the difference between POCD and OCD so I'll just give a little spiel LOL. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder is an anxiety disorder characterized by obsessions that cause the sufferer stress, and the person must act out compulsions to alleviate the stress. Anyone can develop OCD and it can start at any age, but the pattern of thinking usually starts in childhood. You're more likely to develop OCD if you're a deep thinker, sensitive, and haven't developed healthy ways to cope with stress. OCD is your brain's way of handling the topics that deeply disturb you. It is your way to cope with the worst possible things you can imagine, and those things are different to each person. You may be more likely to develop OCD with a contamination theme if you have seen people be very sick, or you have been very sick in your life, because you have learned to be very afraid of it. Thus, your OCD will develop a contamination theme, and your obsessions will involve you possibly being exposed to germs and the compulsions involve avoiding those germs and cleaning rituals. Pedophile-themed Obsessive is when a person who has OCD is deathly afraid of themselves being a pedophile, or being perceived as one. You develop this theme if you are especially sensitive to crimes against children and especially disgusted by the things pedophiles do to them. The idea of you yourself being one of them is so terrifying that your OCD has to constantly make you check to make sure that you aren't, and reassure yourself that you aren't. People with POCD are some of the least likely people to be actual pedophiles. I don't think there is a single pedophile in this world who also has POCD. Pedophiles are NOT caring people like people with OCD, they do not feel remorse for their actions or their thoughts, they are aroused by them. Pedophilia is a paraphilia, it's a sexual disorder. These people are sexually gratified by the thought of hurting children. They seek out interactions with children and enjoy the fantasies that play out in their head. They cannot feel sexually gratified without hurting children or fantasizing about it. A person with POCD will have intrusive thoughts about hurting children, and they may have a physical reaction to them (our genitals respond to sexual imagery whether we want them to or not, and they also respond to anxiety and fear), but they are disgusted by the thought and their potential reaction. They will obsess over what their physical reaction meant, whether they may have actually enjoyed the intrusive thought, and will be horrified by the images that play out in their head. A pedophile would enjoy the fantasy and feel sexual pleasure from it. A person with POCD is essentially the opposite of a pedophile. Pedophiles are the most abhorrent thing they can possibly imagine being, so much so that it makes them sick.