Can you have multiple themes but with 1 theme being the WORST and the othet themes being not that intense? like i have 1 theme that effects me daily and my other themes effect me here and there but not a lot
Yes this happens to me all the time. Sometimes I’ll get intrusive thoughts relating to other themes but I find I always go back to the main one.
@user808 im just glad im not alone. i never considered the “minor” themes my ocd at all tbh since my major theme is more so the one that makes me suffer a lot but the other ones don’t really make me crazy anxious
but there is a big difference like my 1 theme will effect me crazily but the other ones wont that much
Yes I dealt with it sometimes I still do, as far as I know OCD latches to the theme or thought that creates the strongest fear cycle.
@Moha🍃 with my strongest theme it creates bad fear and anxiety like ill get panic attacks etc but my othet themes it makes me nervous a bit or causes me to double check things multiple times but it’s not really a lot of anxiety w those ones so thats why it confuses me
@moonjoy Exactly this is very common I suppose, most of OCD sufferers often deal with multiple themes or thoughts and it happens that they focus more on the ones that cause most anxiety and distress.
@Moha🍃 ohhh okay, im glad to know im not the only one then. i never even considered my minor themes apart of my ocd
Yes, I have a few themes as well. They come up and sometimes one is stronger than the other. It's hard to manage. I just hope this program works for me b/c I can hardly manage anything on a day to day basis. I feel like I'm going to lose my marriage bc of it. How long have you been doing the program here?
I have one theme that affects me more than the others. I even asked my therapist about it today, and he said it was very common.
When it comes to soocd exposures, that sometimes means engaging in triggering things like sex and intimacy with my partner, but I worry that I am sometimes also being compulsive like wanting to be intimate to see how it makes me feel, check my feelings, sensations, emotions etc. and then at that point how can I really do the exposure? Idk I’ve just been struggling so much with this theme lately. I feel like a fraud most of the time and the thoughts convince me I am deeply in denial, constant loop.
Does anyone else struggle with this? It's been the main thing powering my POCD, and it's only been getting worse. Especially when I see posts online of people sharing their personal stories relating to CSA, specifically grooming. It's so triggering now, but before this theme developed, the most I'd feel while reading posts like that would be disgust targeted towards people who did those things. Now, my first thought is, "What if I do something like that one day? What if I've done it before and I don't remember or didn't know I was doing it?" I have many, many different intrusive thoughts or worries related to this theme, but it all circles back to this specific fear that I'll become like the people who hurt and took advantage of me. Does anyone have advice for this? I'm not sure if I've asked a similar question in the past or not, but is this something I need to deal with separately before beginning ERP for OCD? I'm just curious and also lost on where to begin with all of this. I'm just glad I'm able to begin working through all of these issues now, rather than later in life when I'd probably have a lot more responsibilities. Anyways, any feedback is appreciated! 🤍
OK, this might sound really dumb, but when you guys get intrusive thoughts, do they just come once and then go away? I’ve heard that repeatedly thinking about an intrusive thought is considered ‘checking,’ but it doesn’t feel like I have any control over how many times it comes up in my head. It’s not like I’m trying to check anything—it just keeps showing up, almost like it’s terrorizing me every time. I can’t seem to stop it from looping, stop remembering it, or prevent it from coming up. Every time it does, I feel horrified, and I already know it’s going to horrify me. I don’t think I’m actively trying to see if my feelings have changed, so is this still considered checking? How do other people get an intrusive thought and just move on? Doesn’t it pop up a million times for them too? I always thought that was normal, but now I’m hearing this could be a compulsion, and I feel really confused, scared, and lost. Is this why my OCD feels so extreme? Because I really don’t feel like I can control how many times the thought pops up.
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