- Username
- kayd2329
- Date posted
- 5y ago
Hey! I struggle with something similar, I obsess over the fear of having a violent thought. I understand how horrible this can be. Think of it this way: people who ACTUALLY hurt others do not worry about it or feel fear about it. Your fear and obsessions are because to hurt anyone is not in your nature. Don’t try to shut the thoughts out; thoughts are only thoughts, and it does not reflect on you. It’s the opposite—you’re a good person. Here’s what has helped and is currently helping me: 1. Find a good therapist who can help with CBT/ERP/ACT. Talk therapy is not helpful for OCD 2. I highly recommend the book “Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts” by Sally Winston and Martin Seif. This book is amazing. Please give it a chance. 3. Commit to ERP. If you feel scared, pinpoint where the fear is coming from and embrace that fear—it WILL start feeling less scary. Follow the app as if you’re training for a race—little by little every day. 4. My first step before this app was to monitor when I was seeking reassurance and give myself a goal of not seeking that outside reassurance and just living through the anxious feeling. I want you to know you are not alone. I want you to know that the fact you are on here means that you are a sweet and loving person who has OCD centered around something important to you. Please please know the only reason these thoughts come back is because you’re looking for them, hoping they don’t come back, which is how they DO come back. You are strong. Don’t give up.
Yeah, we gotta dream of the thoughts not bothering us
Oh friend:( First off, you should to sit down and breathe really deeply and really slowly. No one who wanted to hurt their loved ones would EVER stress about it this much before hand. The only reason that you have concluded that you’re gonna loose control and hurt someone you love is because of this equation- meaningless thought+extremely intense anxiety NONE of the above is cause for an action. You aren’t gonna do anything, and you don’t have to make sure that you aren’t gonna do anything either. The only person that you should be worried about, sadly, is yourself:( You are the one that deserves your vigilance and protection. I’m so sorry you are struggling with this, and I hope you can get some peace soon.
I second everything @EmmaleighH said!!!❤️
@EmilyRose The thing is it’s very tempting to say “yes I’d definitely want to shut them off”, but having occasional intrusive thoughts—as heinous or gruesome or disturbing as they may be—is completely normal. It’s why everyone you reach out to for reassurance says that yes, they have also experienced these random, weird thoughts. So I wouldn’t want a to shut them off entirely; I’d want a lever I could pull that would give me more CONFIDENCE to accept them for what they are, simply a part of being human, and not a reflection of something wrong with me.
I think that’s a problem I’ve faced—I always wanted any thoughts I deemed bad to be gone forever, which set me up for failure when one inevitably pops up every now and again.
You’re right Emmaleigh. Kayd, please ignore what I wrote.
Don’t worry about it EmilyRose- we are ALL doing our best to navigate this. And it’s so damn tricky!
Lol yeah sometimes (ok most times) I feel like ocd is just this little tricky jerk and I just want to be like “excuse me could you not for ONE SECOND”...but EmilyRose I completely know what you mean...believe me, the idea of just turning intrusive thoughts off completely used to be a total dream scenario to me...it’s just that it’s a dream that can’t be reached for anybody:/
YES exactly. It’s changing you’re relationship with the thoughts that needs to happen. You cannot extinguish them- and get this- you don’t need to!! ACT and mindfulness will help so much with that.
Thanks..yeah, OCD tricks me every day?
Every second of every damn day??♀️
So I’m new to this ocd stuff and I feel so alone and like a bad crazy person. I live in constant fear that I’m gonna end up doing something bad when I don’t want to. How do I stop this vicious cycle, my head aches from all the stress and I’m so tired physically and mentally. I just don’t wanna do anything bad I would hate to do that. Pls help me out idk what to do my life is sucking rn and I just want it to get better. I’m nervous around my family and knifes and I can’t enjoy my time with them and it’s pissing me off. Only time these thoughts are gone is when I’m sleeping. Pls pls help me :(
I’m having intrusive thoughts of something horrible happening to a loved one and the ocd says that I’m “attracting it to happen” and that no matter what I say or do I’ll “attract” this to become reality when I know logically that it was just a thought but the what if and the “if you do this then____ will happen” I just feel so intensely afraid and I never want these things to be real obviously but idk it’s just a scary what if and it’s hard to believe that something that feels so real is just a thought—- then I proceed after recognizing it’s just a thought to fear that saying that somehow the universe will cause that horrible thing to happen as “proof” so I just sit and wait and beg everyone to be careful and keep in contact with me so I know they are ok The thing is is that nothing ever happens but the fear just feels like it’s actually occurring Goshh I’m a friggin mess
I don't know what to do or how to stop this : ( if anyone has advice please, please let me know! It's happening to me that whenever I watch/read TV at night, get into an argument with a loved one, or haven't talked to them for a while I start to have intrusive thoughts/images that they're gonna get fatally hurt. For example, about seven months ago I had a car accident. I don't think I was left necessarily traumatized, but rather every time I have (the previously mentioned) intrusive thoughts I begin to reimagine my loved ones in that same (or similar) situations... and no matter how much I try to NOT acknowledge them...they often lead me to having anxiety or panic attacks. The only way that I seem to be able to stop these intrusive thoughts is by sleeping it off… but then that leaves to lack of productivity throughout the day and affects my life… I try my best to not give in into compulsions…especially because I also have dermatillomania so I KNOW that if I DO give in…it’ll end up bad. I’ve tried writing things down to see if it helps to calm me down. Although that did work for a while, I’ve started to feel/think that if I write my thoughts down they’ll increase possibility of actually happening :( so I’ve stopped doing that for a while now. I don’t know what to do anymore!
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