Struggling with feeling desensitized to intrusive thoughts—anyone relate?

How to cope with becoming desensitized

Ironically. Becoming desensitized to my intrusive thoughts sometimes frightens me. The security of knowing I had such intense anxiety when I had violent/bad/scary intrusive thoughts comforted me because it made me realize I didn’t want them and found them bad. If I’m not reacting to them, I’ve convinced myself that I think it’s okay and maybe deep down I am a bad person? Does anyone else relate to this? My anxiety has felt better lately toward my intrusive thoughts as I am trying to give them no value (that and probably my lexapro lol) but is what I’m feeling normal at all or can anyone relate?

Username: NicaNica

Date posted: 2y ago

That’s another trick OCD does. When you are getting better but haven’t hit recovery just yet, it’ll do a last ditch effort. Everyone has intrusive thoughts—exactly the ones we all have. Does that mean the world’s full of horrible, disgusting people OR are thoughts truly just thoughts and the content of your thoughts don’t matter unless you make them matter? Trick question: it’s the second option, not the first 😜

Username: IamBlessedIamBlessed

Date posted: 2y ago

I think it’s another trick from OCD tryna latch on

Username: Anon17Anon17

Date posted: 2y ago

Literally me word for word!! I had extreme anxiety towards my thoughts in the beginning and now i hardly have any reaction to thoughts that have gotten much worse. I agree my anxiety is feeling better lately but it’s just so scary because I too think maybe deep down I’m a bad person since i am no longer anxious to something that used to disgust me so bad. So yes you are not alone on this one and i am too hoping it’s normal because it is me word for word. Also i am not on medication so it makes it much scarier that my anxiety is going away naturally

Username: EFF_OCDEFF_OCD

Date posted: 2y ago

@Anon17 I’m on the lowest dose possible and technically it’s not in full effect yet. I’ll say that this was happening to me before I started lexapro as well so don’t let that trigger you friend :). We will get through this. Maybe we are just getting better. Ocd is sneaky and will try to stop us but we are stronger.

Username: thrutheweatherthrutheweather

Date posted: 2y ago

Here to confirm that this is OCD… instead of ruminating on the subtype. You’ll start ruminating on why you’re no longer anxious about the subtype and what this means. Another loop. Try responding with ‘maybe I am or maybe I’m not’ when you start worrying if it makes you a bad person etc if you feel you’re in a place where you can respond like that.

Username: EFF_OCDEFF_OCD

Date posted: 2y ago

@thrutheweather Super helpful response. Thank you so much

Username: JacklyngrantJacklyngrant

Date posted: 2y ago

This is me currently. I feel bad for not feeling bad about the things I think. I hate it

Username: Anonymous

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 3y ago

So I realized that now that I don't get as much anxiety when I get intrusive thoughts it's hard to determine if I actually am them or which are intrusive thoughts. But I think that I was using the signal my brain gives me with the intrusive thoughts as reassurance. I seemed the anxiety even tho I hated it. So this is a weird sit with uncertainty.

Username: lu22

Date posted: 1y ago

Does this mean I don’t like the thoughts?

So if as soon as you think of something you get an anxiety feeling in your chest but it’s not an unbearable feeling or feeling of great distress/angst but as soon as I think of that thought I get this anxious feeling in my chest does that mean I don’t like the thought but have gotten use to it so the anxiety isn’t really bad? Like can you get anxiety but but be so use to it that it doesn’t alarm you or come off really strong that you hate the anxious feeling? Because many times throughout the day I have a thought and I get this ‘mild anxious feeling’ but it kinda hits as soon as I ruminate …does that mean I don’t like the thoughts? I have been believing I’m bad and when I tested myself on an intrusive thought (it’s been bothering me a lot it’s about smothering someone😞) it felt so vivid but felt like ‘I liked the feeling of doing that when I imagined it’ I have been obsessing over it thinking I’m actually bad now and have sick desires, but the fact that as soon as I have the thought I get like an instant mild anxiousness in my chest does that mean I am uncomfortable/hate the thoughts but I have gotten use to them so my emotional response isn’t flaring up like it use to? Also why does it feel like I’m desperate to think about these thoughts but at the same time don’t want to think about them I don’t know what to do

Username: Lizzie Scheav

Date posted: 45w ago

Desensitization

Do you guys have the feeling that you are desensitized? I'm afraid of losing my values and acting like my thoughts. I still know what's right and wrong, but I'm no longer shocked or anxious about some things I see (like bad news or cases where there are a lot of differing opinions)...

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Struggling with feeling desensitized to intrusive thoughts—anyone relate?

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