When an intrusive thought comes I canāt just say āthatās not trueā and just move on. I always feel like I have to disprove the thought and be able to say it with confidence but the problem is that the ocd doesnāt allow me to feel and say it with confidence so I get stuck for hours or even days. How can I stop feeling like I need to do this?
You're playing right in to the OCD spiral by those reactions. You feel like you need to do it because it's how your brain has developed over your lifetime. So, when you feel like you have to do it, allow the feeling, but don't. "Ok, I'm feeling uneasy, but I'm going to sit with the uneasiness, I don't like it, but I'm going to sit with it." Same with the thoughts, apply uncertainty "maybe I did look at my daughter wrong, maybe I didn't". The uncertainty doesn't feel right, but I'm going to sit with it anyway... It's not easy because it's not our norm, but it works. Trust it.
Just so you know, I'm keeping my eye out for you. Please don't be creeped out by that. Lol. I know you're a real person and I care and want to help somehow, just as if you were a neighbor.
@Someone99 Ty so much!
beautiful reaction āØ you're not alone. I have too intrusive thoughts all the time about Harm and POCD. I can say with experience: If you engage with the doubts, sensations in your body or the thoughts - your uncertainity will grow, it will overcome you like happen to me. But I don't wanna play the game anymore the OCD way. Together we are stronger.
@ocdnomore1 Ty!
If you were to do the exact opposite and agree with the thought and say āsure, thatās trueā it would pass. For example, I took my son to an appointment today. Multiple times on the drive there, I had thoughts about grabbing him inappropriately. I didnāt engage with the thought, just thought āsure, of course Iām going to do thatā (to myself) and kept the conversation I was having with my son going. The thoughts passed, I never did anything inappropriate to my son, we made it to his dentist appointment and he has no cavities. Wins all around!š¦·š¤©
Anyone who deals with Pure O, have a negative thought come into your head and you spend hours justifying in your head why that thought is wrong? Any suggestions what to do in this situation. For example, someone pointed out a minor mistake I made and I spend the next few hours in my mind trying to justify why she is wrong or why it doesn't matter what she said. I hope you understand what I'm trying to explain. Hard to put this stuff into words.
POCD has become the most exhausting and disturbing intrusive thoughts to me. Itās so frustrating because I would never do anything related to that in my life but now I canāt even look at my brother/his wifeās pictures of their kids because of the intrusive thoughts. I recently had an exhausting intrusive thought that I still havenāt completely gotten over since last Wednesday. I was at a restaurant with my friends, and I went to the bathroom and was waiting for a stall/urinal to open up. A kid walked out of one of the stalls, I did not say anything, I did not do anything at all but of course my intrusive thoughts started spiraling out of control saying āwhat if you just inappropriately touched him or grabbed him or said something messed upā and all sorts of stuff. It definitely did not help that we smoked weed before which I know made my anxiety spike even more with the intrusive thoughts. But I know I never did that and would never do such a thing, plus my friend was in the bathroom in the other stall and another random person was at the urinal so obviously if anything were to happen they wouldāve been aware. But I made the mistake when I got home with going through my usual disproving process and listing all the reasons why I did not do that and why I never would do that and recalling all of the people who were in there with me and how they wouldāve known if that happened and recalling small details like joking with my friend about ābeing that guyā because he was not about to wash his hands and him saying āusually I am that guy but since weāre about to get food Iāll wash my hands.ā And then me holding the door for a random guy plus my friend and then my friend saying āsee heās that kind of guyā because he did not wash his hands. I know I wouldnāt be able to remember small details like that and just completely forget or be uncertain with something as serious as those intrusive thoughts. But the OCD keeps saying āhow do you know for sure, are you certain, what if youāre suppressing itā? Does anyone else deal with this? If so, how do you get through this?
Iām worried that i will start believing the thoughts or act on them if I stop proving them wrong or fighting them. My life is like a loop now, I always get intrusive thoughts no matter what and all i do is ruminate and check how i feel about stuff so iām not even a person of my own iām just my ocd.. Any advice? š°
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
