Just intrusive thoughts??

Can intrusive thoughts be about anything?

Curious to hear how other peoples intrusive thoughts come up in regards to this theme? I constantly have an “I’m gay” replaying in my head and it’s the first thing that sometimes plays in my head when I wake up. I can’t tell if this is an intrusive thought or if I’m just in denial with myself. It doesn’t really give me anxiety anymore like it used to. More sadness/ state of depression and just overall annoyance. I’m in a relationship and when I started to date my current bf is when all of this came up for me. Curious to hear other people’s experiences with the kind of thoughts they have. Granted I have been dealing with this since about Nov of 2022 or maybe even earlier and it feels like I’ve had an array of intrusive thoughts. Quite frankly I also don’t have an OCD diagnosis but a previous therapist I had(not an OCD specialist) told me that I just have GAD with OCD personality and traits.

Something that really trips people up is understanding what intrusive thoughts are. What I see suggested a lot is that intrusive thoughts are just unwanted, unpleasant thoughts. This however isn't really enough criteria to separate the thoughts of someone who suffers from OCD and someone who doesn't as everyone gets unwanted thoughts. Intrusive, obsessive thoughts can be defined by how disruptive they are to your daily life. It's not that people without OCD live without taking precautions, but the amount of time someone with OCD spends compulsing over the thought is very disruptive to their everyday routine. For example: a person without OCD will acknowledge the danger the sun possesses and they will probably put on sunblock to protect themselves. They can do it well enough is a short amount of time to go in with their day and don't really think much about it afterwards. However, someone with OCD may spend hours obsessing over making sure every part of them which can be burned is protected. They may even check to make sure they're not burning as the day goes on. Compulsive behaviors (checking, testing, researching, asking for opinions/reassurance) will take up the majority of their time where someone without OCD will have more "free time" to go about their day. There is no relief for the OCD sufferer in knowing they did good enough. They need to make 100% sure they won't burn in this very specific example. I hope this makes sense for those of you who ask this question frequently as I believe it is very important to understand. Many people deny to themselves that they have this disorder because they can't define these thoughts properly and they get stuck on whether or not their thoughts constitute as being intrusive. Remember: just because you feel you are in distress doesn't mean there's actually any danger.