Intrusive thoughts are hitting me hard these last few days. Normally I have been able to work through them but for some reason, they are causing me a lot of stress. I feel like I’m back at square one when I thought I have made it out of the really bad times. My intrusive thoughts have been about losing my mind. I’m constantly checking to make sure I’m not delusional and then my brain throws out random thoughts that make me think I’m delusional. I know those thoughts aren’t true but then my thoughts are like then why are you having them? Maybe you are beginning to lose it? Then I have a full on panic attack and picturing myself going nuts or in psychosis. I had this theme awhile ago and was able to conquer it or so I thought. Now it’s back and really distressing me. My intrusive thoughts switch back and forth between religion, harm, and now these mental health ones. Sometimes all at once and that’s the worse. Does anyone have advice on how to push through?

I have a suggestion that greatly helped me out during one of the most difficult times during one of the most intense struggles with my OCD. It works like this: First you have your obsessive thought (for example: like did I go on a criminal rampage just now?) Then your spike of MAJOR anxiety occurs…. Then you start ruminating about all the details about the imagined event in question and reasons why this event NEVER HAPPENED…this is where you then apply this technique I came up with that helped me…immediately STOP ruminating and simply make note of your vitals.. your heart rate, respiration and perspiration…as long as actual environment you’re in supports a reason to be sweating and your vitals are normal then it stands to reason that your obsession is completely FALSE because one cannot commit such an act without increasing their heart rate and respiration etc… I hope this was beneficial. Good luck to you.

The YouTube video "ocd: starving the monster" helped me. It helps me to just agree with the ocd (even though that sounds painful.) When you start questioning your sanity, just agree with the intrusive thought, like "yep, I've definitely lost it." It throws your ocd off and stops fueling the obsession. It really helps me. My husband helps me when I bring up am obsession, like, "what if I ruined our kids' lives by letting them watch too much TV? What if our daughter has adhd and it's totally my fault for letting her watch disneyplus??" And my husband (who has learned how to better recognize ocd and help me with it) will say "yeah, you probably ruined their lives, and she probably does have adhd and it definitely is because of the Disney plus shows." It sounds awful and mean, but it helps me so much!! From there, we just laugh and I move on with my day.