Growing up I watched criminal minds. Did I become criminal? No. Were the directors and writers criminals? No, not that I'm aware of. So this seems like a good point to remind ourselves. We can watch horror movies or whatever it may be, realize the horror in them, and still not listen to the OCD. Folks the OCD is the obsessions, don't fuel it! That means reduce the reassurance seeking, reduce the avoidance, reduce the rumination. You can do this. Many have done this successfully. It is possible and there are so many resources to help with this these days!

I always think of Agatha Christie—she wrote some of the best (and most violent) original “whodunit” mysteries, but she was a prolific, successful, and fulfilled. Her stories seem to have come to her somewhat like intrusive thoughts, but she seems not to have been haunted by them, but rather inspired (not to action, but to art). If the queen of crime can write 66 novels about such things and not commit the acts, surely our fleeting and unsolicited thoughts of harm are not fortune-telling, either.

I love this post and the replies! Thank you all who are involved with this post!