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Hi, that’s great to hear that your feeling your getting better. I know when I first started my journey to active recovery I would have intrusive thoughts but not feel anxious which was super strange and at the beginning made me feel the need to complete compulsions other wise I’m a bad person ….. WRONG, that’s the OCD voice creeping back in ! Allow them intrusive thoughts to come and go as they please, don’t engage with them and just let them be. I like to see them almost like a sneeze or yawn, we don’t always know why they happen and most of the time we can’t stop them and we also shouldn’t wast time and effort figuring out what causes them. Just like your intrusive thoughts let them be as there’s nothing there for you to figure out. Keep fighting, keep going, you have got this 🙂

@maxine I am glad you are seeing some good results. Please remember recovery is progress not perfection. In my experience, the best way to handle the intrusive thoughts is to not try to push them out of my mind nor try to analyze them. Instead let them pass through your mind; limiting your response to something neutral like “thanks OCD” or “maybe it’s true, maybe it’s not”. I know easier said than done, but with time and practice it does get easier. I wish you all the best in your recovery journey.

Keep going! You got this. The thoughts will get less and less convincing and less and less frequent. You can do this!

If I just ignore them and do no compulsions?

Do any of you ever think on a past thought that you may have had and feel guilty about it? For example, I am in a great relationship, but I remembered a few days ago that I had a thought about my ex (this thought was well over a year ago.) The thought was, “what if I asked my ex to hangout? Would he want to?” And I don’t think that thought bothered me at the time, but it is eating me alive now. I’m afraid it didn’t bother me then because I actually wanted to hangout with him? How will I ever know the truth? I am asking because I find myself feeling guilty about past thoughts/feelings and I know that it is not an active intrusive thought. I feel like I can’t be happy with my boyfriend and that I’ve cheated on him because I had those thoughts. I would never cheat on him and I love him very much, but the uncertainty kills me. I know that I have to live with the uncertainty to get better.