POCD thoughts

@BigGip09 Hey thanks for your response! I haven’t found anything horrible thank god. I did engage in this behaviour when I didn’t have an understanding of what ocd is but now I do. It does suck, I wish you luck on your journey

@winterdream If you need more help with understanding OCD, I can try! I remember the first time I kept compulsively googling why I kept thinking the same intrusive thoughts like two years ago, and many links to OCD popped up, eventually leading me to join this app. I'm sorry that you engaged in this behavior at all, but it sounds like you didn't know it was OCD in the first place. I'm assuming you only googled something like that to make sure you aren't actually attracted to something like that. This is called checking, which is in my opinion the worst compulsive a sufferer could do to themselves. I've seen posts on OCD forums talk about this and it just doesn't help. What would help is getting yourself busy with something productive so you don't have time to ruminate about several different things.

@BigGip09 I would appreciate that :) it definitely was a form of checking, that’s pretty relevant to my ROCD as well. Now there are other anxieties like the ones I mentioned in my post that come up so overall it wasn’t productive at all and led to more creative intrusive thoughts. I’ve not done it ever since I’ve understood that I have OCD

@winterdream When you searched for those things when you did, I'm not sure of the intentions you had but I'm assuming it was to disprove what OCD was telling you. Now you know not to do that because it will only make your OCD worse. The most effective thing is doing the opposite of what OCD will tell you, even if it bothers you, which it will. For example, if it says you're attracted to children, even though you know you aren't, you can tell it that you are for the sake of the exposure, or say "so what if I am", or "yeah and I'll likely go to jail and die", just to throw the OCD off guard. Writing down the thoughts can also help you. Look into exposure and response therapy and continue to watch OCD related videos to understand what you're dealing with. Always remember, this isn't your fault. You didn't choose to have this disorder and it doesn't say anything about you. Try to learn from everything in your past that has happened related to OCD.

@BigGip09 Thanks for this! No twisted intentions here, if that’s what you meant. it was truly to disapprove what my brain was telling me and my thoughts tend to present themselves as commands until I fulfill them and then they are gone for a little amount of time until a new, more creative one comes up. Thank you so much for this advice and for taking the time out to respond to me :) I truly appreciate it

@winterdream I totally get that. I'm glad I was able to help you gather a better understanding of OCD. It can be a cruel thing to deal with, but you can overcome it. You can take control back. There's been many people that have been in your situation and just like you, they can get better. For the record, I also struggle with POCD and real event OCD, which is a bad combination, but I'm slowly getting over it with putting up healthy activities over unhealthy ones. Once again, I'm glad to help!

They said it was to disprove the intrusive thoughts or false attractions they had. It was not a good thing to do and I hope they haven't kept doing that, but I also hope they are doing better with their OCD. It's a hard topic because in general that's something people should not do at all, but if the person is truly struggling with OCD they need that kind of help