I too am reluctant to "believe this is OCD". I've been diagnosed (and treated for) PTSD after domestic violences. All my intrusive thoughts are about fear of living them again. How am I supposed to expose myself to thoughts of being molested? Isn't that going to traumatize me even further?

No offense taken, I assure you. I know sex OCD is common, but I find it very complicated to put that apart from PTSD symptoms. Something happened to me and every time the topic comes it freaks the hell out of me. I tried to do what CCT says and keep it on solid ground by contradicting emotions with facts and it became a ritual. Frightened of anal sex evocation or rememberence - reading about people actually liking it - not feeling better. For the dog thing I'm a hundred percent sure it is OCD. Just less sure if it comes from me or as a side effect from diseases and medications.

Both PTSD and OCD are notable for their intrusive thoughts. IMO it doesn't matter if it's OCD or not, because PTSD has a similar treatment profile with ERP being gold standard. But how do you "expose" yourself to such terrible thoughts? The same way anyone else does regardless of theme, sans act, by accepting "maybe this could happen" and sitting with the anxiety caused by a thought or trigger until it lessens without doing any compulsions (ruminations are a sneaky C for me and cause me panic attacks, I'd watch out for that lol). I understand the pertinent issues in your intrusive thoughts are quite traumatising- it really helped me (I was Dx OCD at the same time as PTSD) to learn some self defense, figuring out what I would do if a similar situation were to come about again (especially now that my main abuser has been released from prison), and knowing that even if I am armed to the teeth, bad/violent things could still happen (and they have, and I'm still alive and kickin, doing better than ever in some ways even :p). What you're going through sucks. Best of luck.

I find ERP for trauma a very harsh and even dangerous way tbh. As far as I know that‘s not state of the art. So I understand your concerns. I have trauma too and no, there is no way to „expose“ myself to the theme.

Yes I did a complete year of EMDR and the intrusive thoughts began halfway of the therapy. I find myself reading and reading about rape, domestic violence and certain sexual practices to reassure myself that it doesn't always happen this way, that sometimes people do it with consent because they simply like it, etc. My therapist said months ago that the therapy was over and my PTSD cured. She refused to answer when I wrote her I got some tremendous anxiety issues that didn't exist in the first place. I'm also autistic and I wonder if something didn't just turn wrong with EMDR. I also started to fear that I mistreat my dog (that's cristallised on my dog, no worries about the cat) and I can't take it when he behaves bad, just telling him off or when my partner tells him off it triggers a panic attack. That could sound like OCD right? Also I've got many other health problems that could cause anxiety and many medications too. I don't know what I got, I just know that something went wrong and I'm confused about how to address it

It sounds like OCD. And the topics and triggers of a person's obsessions can change over time. In general I have contamination OCD about germs, but there have been episodes in my life were I've obsessed about random things (like magic and romantic interests) with the same iintensity. Really give ERP for your current obsessions a try. And don't be surprised if your obsessions change in the future.

I don't know TRE, is there a resource out there you can point out to me?

Oh, this I got. Composing music helps a lot. Drawing, cooking, building things out of wood, yarn, and stuff. That's the disturbing thing, I'm pretty active and not at all depressed, just randomly freaked out throughout the day. Thank you so much for the tips, I'll go look for that

EMDR is a highly effective treatment for PTSD. It also involves intentially bring up traumatic memories ( while stimulating both alternating sides of the brain) then desculating that anxiety with healthy coping strategies. You do this repeatedly with the same memories over and over again until your able to descualte the anxiety instantly. Look into it.

Other medical conditions can impact it too. I have fibromyalgia which causes anxiety. when My fibro flare up my OCD gets worse. Treating my anxiety with medication really helps my OCD.

I am a rape survivor too. And I will watch movies and porn about rape at times too. Dont feed into the obsessions! They will only get stronger if you do.

I don't watch movies and porn about rapes, I couldn't. I'm not at all into porn in the first place. I rather am sex repulsive if anything. I began to feel intense distress towards male gay people (and anybody who displays hypersexualized) but I am historically NOT AT ALL homophobic (I'm bi, myself, and perfectly ok with that) and it's that, that distresses me most

I'm sorry I misunderstood. I was sleepy while reading your post. I'm very sorry if I offended you. The point is, no matter what your obsession is, if you feed into it will compulsions it will get stronger and stronger.

Sex (and sexual orrientation) OCD is relatively common. Your concern about exposure therapy triggering your trauma may be the OCD trying to scare you. That's what it does. It hijacks the mind.

Hi Ailil, in the first place I avoid display of violence. Then I do trauma release exercise (TRE) from time to time which is basically shaking of your body. And I try visual exercise like the „inner safe place“. Also I have little bottles with natural oil withe me so the smell can help not to sink into memories. But I have not yet recovered from the trauma! It‘s a difficult process.

My panic attacks have become daily, I have to do something about that, it's exhausting

For TRE I just searched on youtube. It‘s invented by David Bercelli, but I found a woman demonstrating the exercises. He‘s from the US so there should be ressources. I think it‘s good to find something that is just yours and not affected by shit, like drawing or whatever it is for you.