Username: issphra 🫶🏻

Date posted: 3d ago

Maybe this is obvious but I need some insight pls

There’s something that happens that keeps me stuck in a thought, it’s when I can see some part of myself agreeing with or relating to it in some way. That’s when the doubt creeps in. If I can understand *why* the thought is there, doesn’t that mean it’s not just random? Doesn’t that mean it actually reflects something about me? For example **(TMI/TW)**: I had the thought, *“I wonder what other people’s kinks are (including friends, family, even teenagers).”* And then I caught myself thinking, *“Well, I guess that could be interesting information… maybe I wouldn’t even stop someone from sharing it with me. Does that mean I actually want to know? Wait—does that make me perverted or incestuous for even having this curiosity?”* The same thing has happened with other thoughts, like wondering what someone’s privates might look like. I recognize that, on some level, that could be interesting—but does that mean the thought is truly mine? Maybe the answer is super obvious and I just can’t see through my OCD smoke. This was a bit embarrassing for me to write 🥲, but can anyone provide some insight?

Username: happyday123happyday123

Date posted: 3d ago

I have the same thoughts too. The best thing i’ve been told is that once you have an “obsessive” thought for example, what you are mentioning, it usually is a lie, then we compulse, and entertain the thought. When this happens, which has been happening to me a lot lately, I just keep saying out loud “that is not true” over and over again until the thought goes away.

Username: issphra 🫶🏻issphra 🫶🏻

Date posted: 3d ago

@happyday123 Thank you, that’s helpful!

Username: Tea and HoneyTea and Honey

Date posted: 3d ago

I think what will help you the most is to except the truth that ALL these thoughts are meaningless, and it doesn’t matter if they are in your head or not. So, for example, when you get the thought “I wonder what other peoples kinks are,” you don’t worry about the fact that that thought is in your head. In fact, you can let that thought repeat itself in your head all day if it wants to. It doesn’t matter if it’s in your head or not. In ERP therapy, we can practice allowing those thoughts to rattle around in our heads freely. It’s very important to not try to FIGURE OUT whether or not you really meant the thought or not. In other words, do not try to figure out if the thought came from you or from the OCD. This is key. I can’t emphasize that enough. You have to stop trying to figure all that out. Instead, you have to apply strict ERP to the situation, no matter how you feel, without trying to figure anything out. This means you allow that all bad, disturbing, unpleasant thoughts to rattle around freely in your head all day. And you have to allow the other connected thoughts that come along to rattle around as well. (For example , the connected thoughts about friends, family, teens, etc). It doesn’t matter, because they are ALL OCD thoughts. They are ALL meaningless. This might seem wrong for you to do at first. Your conscience might say, “But what if I actually meant the thought? What if that means that I am a bad person? You have to train yourself to apply ERP here. This means that you are going to go about your life just the way you want to, even if those thoughts are spinning themselves and circles in your head. I have a lot more that I could share here. Please feel free to write back. Do you think this method would work for you?

Username: issphra 🫶🏻issphra 🫶🏻

Date posted: 2d ago

@Tea and Honey Girl, share all you would like. It’s so very welcomed!!! What I’m hearing is it doesn’t matter if it’s intrusive or me, any thoughts wanting to figure them out or linking them to things that makes me want to figure it out are OCD thoughts..? I’m slightly lost there when you say they’re all OCD thoughts. Is it kinda like “it doesn’t matter if they’re meaningful or meaningless, treat them meaninglessly?” Please do share all you’d like. I really appreciate the time you took to write all this out and explain this. Thank you for your help 💕 I do sincerely appreciate it.

Username: Tea and HoneyTea and Honey

Date posted: Yesterday

@issphra 🫶🏻 Yes!!! Everything you just said is right!!!! It doesn’t matter if they are intrusive or you—just treat them all meaninglessly and go about your life as normal. Don’t try to figure them out. Just let all the thoughts rattle around in your brain freely (whether you think they are intrusive or you), and go along with your life. I think that applying ERP to your struggles could be tremendously helpful. I can’t remember if you have tried it or not. NOCD can really help with that. I can’t recommend them enough. Have you been trained in ERP?

Username: issphra 🫶🏻issphra 🫶🏻

Date posted: 13h ago

@Tea and Honey Not really, I struggle a lot with it. Can I ask, once I get a thought for example what someone might look like naked. I’m supposed to not push it away and let it be there but is the curiosity it may bring, and me imagining it, something I’m not supposed to do? Or is it that I “let myself” imagine it and then just leave it alone? I feel like I purposely imagine the answer to these questions and that’s what makes me feel very bad. I had a terrible flare up of this today and I couldn’t for the life of me not try to figure it out. I was so panicked because it felt like I wanted to imagine an underaged family member out of curiosity, and I did. The guilt that came from that was otherworldly. I’m having a lot of trouble honestly and I’d appreciate your knowledge, you really seem to know what you’re talking about ERP wise. Is this something you think you can give me advice about or clarify a bit?

Username: nae naenae nae

Date posted: 3d ago

Don't be embarrassed! I have similar thoughts, too. I think most people, including non-OCD, get thoughts like this. The difference is that our thoughts are obsessive, and we assign meaning to them. People without OCD see them as just thoughts and nothing more.

Username: issphra 🫶🏻issphra 🫶🏻

Date posted: 2d ago

@nae nae I really do believe that. I just wish I could let the thought pass like I’m sure I used to at some point, thank you for helping me feel less alone 💗

Username: nae naenae nae

Date posted: 2d ago

@issphra 🫶🏻 🫂🩷

Username: AnonymityKAnonymityK

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 3d ago

Thanks for sharing this! I know it must not have been easy. There’s a phrase my therapist always says: ‘OCD is OCD is OCD.’ What that means is that no matter the content—whether it’s harm, contamination, sexual, or anything else—it’s all the same at its core. If it’s making you doubt yourself and causing distress, it’s OCD, and you should treat it as such. Focus on the compulsions and practice what you’ve learned in therapy. In recovery, you don’t have to figure out why, you just need to acknowledge the thought, let it be, and keep going.

Username: issphra 🫶🏻issphra 🫶🏻

Date posted: 2d ago

@AnonymityK That makes a lot of sense. If something is making me doubt myself, it’s likely OCD. I also tend to overthink normal things, which makes it easy to get lost in it. Whenever I overthink something ordinary and it leads to doubt and stress, I often wonder whether OCD is driving the overthinking or if I’m experiencing an intrusion. I guess you could say both are forms of OCD, just in slightly different ways. I’m still having trouble navigating this, but I’m sure I’ll get better. Thank you for taking the time to reply :)

Username: andrewt_andrewt_

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 2d ago

Oh trust me these thoughts are VERY common. Your brain is a safe space to explore them and that’s why they can happen so freely. On a deeper level your brain knows all it is is natural curiosity, something every single one of us has. Sometimes our brains get bored and start to wander. But like others have said, you don’t need to get to the bottom of these thoughts. You don’t owe your OCD any kind of explanation, it doesn’t deserve power over you

Username: issphra 🫶🏻issphra 🫶🏻

Date posted: 2d ago

Unfortunately, I also get intrusive thoughts in the form of curiosities 🥲. A therapist once told me that this sounded like underlying moral OCD, specifically, the “What does it say about me that I wondered this?” thought pattern. After writing that sentence, I can definitely see it in my post, omg. It’s my main theme and core fear as well 🙃. I believe you when you say these thoughts are common, it makes sense. So much of what you’ve said resonates with me. I think I even overthink normal curiosity, and it often expands into uncomfortable territory. Sometimes, it’s obvious when a curiosity is actually intrusive versus when I’m just genuinely curious. But when my OCD is really bad, I can’t tell at all. The other day, I just wanted to know how many calories were in my soup, and I started panicking for even wondering lmfao. I’m really trying to work through this, though. :) Sometimes, when I allow myself to be curious about certain things, my OCD immediately throws similar, uncomfortable curiosities my way. I feel like I can’t shrug them off, and exploring them feels wrong—but I still think about them. I *think* that may be a compulsion of mine, because I struggle to let them go once they’re in my head. Okay, I’ll stop rambling now, lol. Thank you for your support and insight. I’ll try to remember that I don’t owe OCD an explanation, thank you for that. :)

Username: Puffin123456

Date posted: 24w ago

Pls help

Is it possible for intrusive thoughts to be disguised as real thoughts after a while. I can never tell what’s a conscious thought and whats a subconscious thought. Because they seem so similar it confuses me. That and the fact I’ve had OCD for a long time and I have so many subtypes I constantly am having thoughts circling in my head and I don’t really filter them anymore if that makes sense. I just notice thoughts and then they go in and out. Like I don’t check to see what’s intrusive or not. So it bothers me now because after doing that for so long I can’t separate them and know if it’s an actual thought from my own conscious something I truly want or if it intrusive? I know people say intrusive thoughts are thoughts that cause you panic and bother you, thoughts you know you wouldn’t act on. But that makes it difficult for me because part of OCD is making you doubt yourself so it goes hand in hand so I can never distinguish if I agree with my intrusive thoughts. Usually my intrusive thoughts don’t bother me until like weeks later when I actually think about the thought and obsess cause I’m like wtf why’d I think that. But most moments I just let my thoughts come and go and they don’t bother me. But then eventually some of them will later on. That’s what makes it hard for me to distinguish my own thoughts from intrusive thoughts because most of the thoughts that bother me later don’t bother me at first. Can those thoughts still be intrusive because I worried about them later on? And usually they are not something I would think on my own free will if that makes sense

Username: Solrose

Date posted: 17w ago

Sexual-Thoughts/Images - Taboo

My OCD wants to keep switching “themes” on me, but once again it always concerns my mom or family. This time it’s sexual-related. The one I experience the most is the harm-related thoughts towards her, thinking I want to hurt her or thinking she abused me in the past (she did not) so that’s why I have these thoughts. My mind is always trying to see if there are deeper meanings to these thoughts and how I really feel. Yesterday my thoughts started going towards - “what if I’m attracted to my mom?” I was reading a book and it was a romantic scene and an image of my mom popped into my head. I tried to just dismiss it since I know we can’t control what comes into our heads, but I of course ruminated about it more and it has become a full-blown obsession. I have started wondering if I really am attracted to her or not, do I want to be in a relationship with her, am I just denying my feelings, etc. It sounds so disgusting and disturbing to share these things, but it’s difficult to disengage with this kind of thinking. Like it’s too disturbing to just let it go. Which leads to other worries like what if I can never be in a real relationship because I will just keep having these thoughts, what if this is true and how will I live with myself, what if my mom sexually abused me as a kid and that’s why I’m having these thoughts, etc. I know I’m going down the rabbit hole, but I just keep coming up with more and more “reasons.” Trying to go about my day and not pay them any attention, but it has been difficult to focus on anything else. Which then makes me wonder if I’m actually just fantasizing now and not actually obsessing.

Username: misereri

Date posted: 29d ago

Urgent: i need yalls opinion

Sometimes I think " do I like kids?" "Would i get aroused if I saw content with kids?""What if I'm a pedo and cant accept it?" "What if I'm ok with these thoughts?" "What if I'm not distressed enough " "What if I enjoy these thoughts?" , i avoid kids as much as i can, i cant look at them bc I'm scared I'm gonna have some groin like response. I keep testing if I'd get turned on or if I'd have some groinal response to sexual scenarios with kids. Sometimes I think that if I took my life this would be over and i wouldn't have to think about this and i wish i doubted something else instead of things like this. I had similar situations just with different topics such as if i loved or found sexually appealing a guy while in a relationship and i kept asking myself those questions for months and i avoided going to school for weeks and when I went I'd cry and have anxiety attacks. I had it with past actions i obessed over and felt the need to exploit every detail and be honest because otherwise i was being a fraud. I had it for sexual things that happened when i was a child. Im not diagnosed with ocd but should i tell this to my local counselor? Can someone help? Give me advice or tell me anything?

POCD

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Share your thoughts so the Community can respond

Maybe this is obvious but I need some insight pls

Related posts

Be a part of the largest OCD Community

Be a part of the largest OCD Community