- Date posted
- 6y
- Date posted
- 6y
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.
- Date posted
- 6y
Yeah, we gotta dream of the thoughts not bothering us
- Date posted
- 6y
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.
- Date posted
- 6y
I second everything @EmmaleighH said!!!❤️
- Date posted
- 6y
@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.
- Date posted
- 6y
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.
- Date posted
- 6y
You’re right Emmaleigh. Kayd, please ignore what I wrote.
- Date posted
- 6y
Don’t worry about it EmilyRose- we are ALL doing our best to navigate this. And it’s so damn tricky!
- Date posted
- 6y
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:/
- Date posted
- 6y
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.
- Date posted
- 6y
Thanks..yeah, OCD tricks me every day?
- Date posted
- 6y
Every second of every damn day??♀️
Related posts
- Date posted
- 18w
What if this and what if that. It’s all harm related and the urges feel so real I just can’t stand this anymore. Does anyone have any advice that has conquered OCD harm intrusive thoughts. I have them 24/7 and they are so scary.
- Date posted
- 18w
I’ve been through a lot of trauma the past few months and years and had an anxiety breakthrough where I can’t stop having panic and anxiety attacks. I used to be a horror movie addict and one night during an anxiety attack my brain went “Kill your sister” My sister is my whole world. It all went downhill from there. I can’t even be around her when were home alone anymore. Every single day since then my brain is trying to tell me a bunch of different ways to harm her. Its getting to a point where its involving others now. “Kill your sister.” “What if you finally go back to your boyfriends house and kill his family?” “What if you kill mom?” “Kill that lady walking down the aisle at work.” “What if you killed yourself?” “You’re a bad person for thinking all of this.” “You shouldn’t be allowed to sleep, eat or relax. Bad people don’t get to do those things.” “These thoughts are in your head 24/7 because you WANT to do these things!” Its causing me so much anxiety and racing thoughts and I don’t want to become anymore depressed. SSRIs dont work. My doctor wants me to go on antipsychotics but I’m afraid to and I feel like I don’t actually need them and it will cause more damage. My goal is to become the person I was before all of this. Not to change completely. I tried buspirone once and I stopped due to increased health anxiety and often found myself saying “remember when you wanted to kill your sister?” and then brushing it off. It helped in some sort of way. I was only on it for a week. My whole life has changed since then. I dont go to my boyfriends house anymore, I dont see my friends, I can’t play video games anymore. All I do is ruminate and I cant stop. I cant even hold a conversation anymore. The compulsions are horrible. I’m so scared that theres no coming back from this. Its all adding to the anxiety that I don’t want to become severe depression. I just want to be me again. I’m starting off ERP and if it doesn’t work I dont know what to do. Can someone please tell me they have been through similar and have gotten better. I just need to save my life. Its getting to a point where this is convincing me this is all real and its going to happen and that im gonna become a psychopath. Its been going on for 3 months. I used to be so bubbly and happy!! (I am not schizoaffective)
- Date posted
- 17w
I'm at my college and don't feel like being here. I didn't even want to come here. I woke up with anxiety bc i feel like i need to solve this. I had a bad stomach ache when i arrived to school and still havent even eaten breakfast yet bc i feel like i have to solve this. Im just so worried bc i have harm thoughts daily. If i could i would remove this! I dont want to think anymore. Its just, how do I know i dont have real urges when I'm feeling a negative emotion like anger or disappointment or annoyance? Im worried EVERY time i feel a negative emotion. Yesterday I was playing video games with my neice (we are close in age range) and she made us lose. She started blaming me and I guess i felt a little annoyed, it really wasnt my fault (dumb mini argument it was more playful since we started laughing but it was a bit annoying). Anyway i got a harm thought while feeling annoyed of me getting off the couch and lunging at her to attack. I immediately look at my bodily reaction and I tense up to stay as still as possible. My stomach was hurting and i wanted to leave as fast as possible. I stood up and turned off the game and said i was tired while making sure to stay back from her (and i had my hands away and stiff) but i felt so uneasy. I laid I bed and felt sad and heavy. And i kept getting thoughts that said "íts only a matter of time before you can't take it anymore". I started to reassurance seek using ai to ask if i was about to or if they are real urges or thoughts i mean until i eventually fell asleep in the middle of the compulsion. Im just so worried, what if I act out impulsevly one day? I dont want to! But what if when feeling a negative emotion, i suddenly dont care and do something? I really dont want to! I dont even want to feel negative emotions anymore since they trigger the thoughts and I dont want to think about any of that. As a result i tend to avoid my family as much as possible bc they are annoying sometimes. I just wish i was all alone sometimes so i wont get any more thoughts and so everyone can be safe. I usually just stay in bed under my blankets all day long to avoid my family and pets. I am constantly uncomfortable. I miss when i would never think any of this. Living life has become very scary for me now. 😞
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