Lately my intrusive thoughts are centered on my kids. Why is ocd coming for what is most precious to me?? This is so painful and the hardest i’ve ever had to deal with. The more I tell the ocd it isn’t true the more it tries to make me feel that it is. I can’t live like this😢
OCD targets what we care about most. Those are super relatable kinds of thoughts for a lot of people with OCD and really painful to deal with. Doing ERP exposures to try to be more comfortable with those thoughts can help them start to go away. As disturbing as they are trying to fight them can make the anxiety worse in the long run.
Was just about to say. Thats why ocd is so terrible. It targets what we care about most
OCD will try and steal any joy away from you and it does target what you cherish the most. Don’t let it win! See it for the lies and false accusations it tells. Learning how to let those horrible thoughts just go by without fighting them is very hard but what we have to do. At first it may make your anxiety worse but remember you are retraining your brain that those thoughts are not important and any anxiety is a false alarm. Always take OCD intrusive thoughts as lies. Hang in there it is worth it.
@ivrec I know that’s what I have to do but when I tell myself it’s just the ocd and a lie, the ocd will put an image in my head of me doing something horrible and tell me I don’t mind it and that i’m okay with it and then I get more upset and feel sick. How do I get past that?
@hopefulxmess Oh you sound like me most of my intrusive thoughts are visual. I guess instead of saying you don’t mind it I like to say “whatever” to me that is more dismissive for me. The anxiety and crappy feelings are the false alarms and do feel bad. They unfortunately are part of the retraining process for your brain. By tolerating the discomfort and going about your normal activities you are teaching brain that the discomfort will not stop you from living your values. All of this is very hard. At first it really feels like you are just going through the motions. Just try and remember intrusive thoughts given too much attention tend to stick. Anxious feelings suck but when you let your body feel them they too should become less.
@ivrec Thank you so much! This really does help. I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to give me advice and support.Thank you🥰
Anytime
The worst is when ocd latches on to your children. I’ve been having intrusive thoughts about my daughter that have me so depressed. I know none of it is true but the ocd really tries to convince me that it is. Any other parents experience this??
Lately my ocd is latching onto my children. In my opinion, for me, this is the most painful and most debilitating theme of ocd. My daughter asked me to help her wash and rinse the shampoo from her hair while she was in the shower because she has thick hair and sometimes she has trouble shampooing and rinsing it all out. A normal, common task for me. At some point I caught a glimpse of her private area and my ocd immediately tried to make me believe I looked intentionally. I know I didn’t and I know I do not think of her or any child in that way but now my ocd has me questioning myself. I was just doing what I always do so I don’t remember at what point I saw it. Was I reaching for and looking down for the shampoo when I saw it or was I reaching up to her hair and saw it as I looked up? Did I look due to just normal human tendency to look where we know we’re not supposed to and if that’s the case does that make me horrible? I’m driving myself insane trying to prove I do NOT feel or think that way about her. I don’t want to live if this is how my brain works. Ocd is evil and this is the hardest kind of intrusive thought to get past. 😩
Since I developed ocd as postpartum my ocd has mostly always targeted my kids. It started as harm and then switched to pocd. Both are equally very painful. For years I was mostly able to keep my ocd at bay but when it comes back it’s so bad. I have a son and a daughter and my ocd switches back and forth from kid to kid with horrible intrusive thoughts and now even intrusive ocd dreams. With each thought I get past and start to feel relief another one pops right up. The thoughts feel so real and true even though I know it’s just the ocd and not how I think or feel, the ocd always makes me doubt myself and question everything I think or do. I know other moms/dads go through this too. Please anyone who has or is going through this please tell me how you deal with this. 😪
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