- Username
- llalala
- Date posted
- 6w ago
Engaging with thoughts
Have you ever engaged in a thought and only left you more confused?
- Username
- SolroseSolrose
- Date posted
- 6w ago
Of course. This is rumination. You can’t analyze OCD or use logic against it. It will always find something new to throw at you. Even when you think you have the answer, it creates something else. Try your best to not engage and just give neutral responses, and live in the moment.
- Username
- llalalallalala
- Date posted
- 6w ago
Thank you!! ❤️🩹I'm having intrusive thoughts like: I want this. And then I think maybe I want this if... And I freak out
- Username
- SolroseSolrose
- Date posted
- 6w ago
@llalala Yes, I deal with the same thoughts and feelings - that I want this, I like this, I will act on this, etc. I completely understand. It doesn’t matter how it’s phrased though, still just thoughts. Still just feelings. I like to say to myself “no amount of analysis will be enough.”
- Username
- issphra 🫶🏻issphra 🫶🏻
- Date posted
- 6w ago
Yep, it leaves me feeling worse. Sometimes I’ll think maybe deep down I like this and I’m just scared of judgement. Sometimes I’ll think maybe it’s okay to think or want this. Sometimes I’ll think it’s not as bad as it seems (to a particularly vile thought). It leaves us feeling confused because it a form of checking + rumination. As if subconsciously you want to make sure you still have morals after you’ve justified something that you know goes against your beliefs (but in that moment you doubt it) Is similar to what you experience?
- Username
- llalalallalala
- Date posted
- 6w ago
@isshpra 🫶🏻 Yes!! Exactly. Sometimes I think "is this really wrong?" or "someone did this, are they wrong?". It's scary. It's good to know I'm not alone.
- Username
- issphra 🫶🏻issphra 🫶🏻
- Date posted
- 6w ago
@llalala I’ve found myself almost feeling bad for terrible people on the news. It makes me feel so ashamed but I know it’s not real. It’s just all another form of checking and ruminating. It’s you trying to deal with really big emotions that come from dealing with this disorder. None of it is real no matter how real it feels.
- Username
- llalalallalala
- Date posted
- 5w ago
@isshpra 🫶🏻 Yes!!! this happens to me too🥹
- Username
- I’m BatmanI’m Batman
- Date posted
- 6w ago
Oh yeah. I’ve yelled at it before “wtf do you want from me” and just get crickets… You can’t logic it , argue with it or reason with it. There is always that next “what if”. The key is to acknowledge it’s there but don’t engage. Engaging is rumination which can become a compulsion. Compulsion feeds it. OCD grows and demands more food and now it consumes your day. You can’t push the thought away, you will just think of it more. Think of it like breathing. You breathe automatically until just now when I made you aware that you are breathing and now you might be doing it manually lol. Same thing with thoughts … they are automatic and just happen. We choose to engage with them. Then they become manual. Choose not to engage. Acknowledge it’s there and let it be. It’s tuff when you start but typically becomes more easy as you practice it.
- Username
- llalalallalala
- Date posted
- 5w ago
@I’m Batman Thank you!! This is a really good explanation. I was having doubts the other day about thoughts being automatic, because people always say that intrusive thoughts are “the ones you don’t want”, but sometimes my thoughts are so confusing and so many that they seem “normal”.
- Username
- AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 6w ago
Yessss
- Username
- NicaNica
- Date posted
- 6w ago
Yes, it’s rumination and it is a compulsion that just makes OCD worse.
- Username
- AnonymousAnonymous
- Date posted
- 5w ago
Yes my problem is I would be stuck in a loop with those thoughts. It only made things worse for me.
- Username
- llalalallalala
- Date posted
- 5w ago
@Anonymous Yes!! The comments here helped me a lot❤️🩹
- Username
- LiaExe28LiaExe28
- Date posted
- 5w ago
Yes all the time ;-;
Related posts
- Username
- PRIV8
- Date posted
- 24w ago
How accepting thoughts/emotions help?
I read many articles about this, cause i dont know how to accept thoughts, and i hear "just let it come in, let it make you feel bad, let it make you feel anxious or depressed. So in my entire life, everytime i will have a negative thought, intrusive thought or disturbing thought, i let it make me feel how it wants. Im in a depressive season right now, i have many disturbing thoughts, i have to accept all of them to come in my mind and im acknowledging every thought and letting them make me feel how they want? Poeple are angry here that i ask this many times but i dont see any progression there...I tried to do that and gave me a huge depressive feeling and i started to panic. Now im overthinking if that depression means something deeply about me or not... and also if i find some thought patterns, should i change them? Or just dont engage in them? Also not engaging for me sounds like avoidance,.cause i avoid to engage in it. This "sit with it, accept them, work through them" doesnt make sense to me. When should i say this is an ocd thought in dont have to figure it out or this is something that i have to think about?
- Username
- fuzzy_caterp...
- Date posted
- 22w ago
acting on thoughts
I have been dealing with intrusive thoughts for a long time, and while most of them don’t affect me anymore, there are ones that really concern me and make me feel panic. They make me feel like I could actually act on the intrusive thought and I’m just holding myself back from it. It’s really scary and I don’t know who I am anymore.
- Username
- Hieronymus
- Date posted
- 21w ago
Can the actual intrusive thought have a tantrum?
I have trouble disengaging with my intrusive thoughts because when I say something positive in response to some disparaging comment it made or disengage it will get louder; more aggressive and sometimes even screams at me. So I’ve usually resorted to actually fighting the intrusive thoughts, but I realise that this isn’t helping & I feel like my thoughts have made me a bitch to people lately because my patience has just been spent on that thing and I’m just tired. I’ve come to conclusion last night that fighting the thoughts isn’t going to help but rather disengaging. The best analogy I’ve used is that it acts like a kid having a fit when it doesn’t get its own way and to just ignore it. But surely, I can’t be the only one whose intrusive thoughts have temper tantrums?
Be a part of the largest OCD Community
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond