I started having intrusive thoughts between 6 and 8 years old. It happened on and off until high school. As an adult I was able to cope by just ignoring them and they started to be a rare offense. Now I'm in perimenopause and hormonal fluctuations and they are back with a vengeance along with depression. This is a very scary time of my life any words of encouragement are greatly appreciated.
I understand the struggle of intrusive thoughts. I don’t know if you have OCD or are getting counseling for OCD. For me my ERP was a few ways to handle them. One was to agree with them and not use logic, because OCD will always bring up one more “what if” and the second way was by saying “Maybe, maybe not”. In other words it might be true it might not I may never know. I know that is difficult to do but as we learn to ignore the thoughts they have less of a hold on us. For me I get triggered more so in the evening one of the things my NOCD councilor to me to say is “I don’t like this now but I can handle hard things.” I know the struggle you’re talking about as well as others in this app. You are not alone.
Supporting you friend! I am going through a very terrible OCD spike while having COVID. The maybe maybe not works really well, also if you are not taking any medication it can be helpful if it’s too hard to manage on your own.
This is so helpful to know we’re not alone. I have very similar experiences as you mentioned as well
You're not alone. Hormonal fluctuations are such a beast, at the best of times, and they can make OCD so much louder/stronger for a lot of us. Even parts of the menstruation cycle do this to a lot of us, so perimenopause and menopause will also probably be a real turd for our OCD too. If you haven't done ERP, I hope you'll connect with a therapist and begin that journey. It can really help. In the meantime, know you're not alone. A lot of us share this struggle with you and understand how overwhelming it can be. Sending love & support to you 🩷
I’m having constant intrusive thoughts and it’s driving me crazy. I will go through these periods where everything I do I get an intrusive thought and it’s just my brain is so loud. Anyone else?! How do you stop the constant intrusive thoughts when you can’t really do an exposure for every single one?!
HELP!! Does anyone have any tips for intrusive thoughts I have been having some really bad ones lately.
I have had a huge increase in Intrusive Thoughts this week. It’s making things super difficult for me, I am on my period but I also think I’m having more intrusive thoughts recently because things are going well for me right now. I just keep waiting for everything to fall apart because my mind makes me believe that I don’t deserve more than one good thing at a time. My mind is in constant fight or flight mode. I cannot stop thinking about every past mistake or how someone may have thought I had bad or malicious intentions when I didn’t. I keep thinking I’m going to get in trouble for something and go to jail, I’m especially scared about work and messing up someone’s check out and getting fired or arrested. I hate feeling this way, there is just so much going on in my head and I’m terrified and stressed all the time.
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