Ive recently been having a lot of intrusive thoughts again and Im scared it’ll make everything catastrophic for me at work since I work a lot with people. Like what if I say something completely inappropriate or cant think fast enough in a high stress situation?
The "What if..." is the enemy of the anxious people. When anxious, I almost never see a 'What if' that is positive. No one has ever come to a session with me and asked, "What if everyone likes me and thinks I am awesome?" It is always worst case scenarios, like saying inappropriate things at work or not thinking fast enough. I hope that you have a therapist to help you get on this right away - there is no need to suffer here. If we can help, we would love to. Hit the therapist button on your app if you need access to an OCD/ERP trained therapist to try to help you.
This is a really common thought, you might be surprised at how many people have similar thoughts/worries. If your OCD symptoms are worse, consider doing a treatment course of ERP to tackle these thoughts.
That's so real. OCD can make us fear if we might say or do something inappropriate when around others. This is really common with OCD. And it sucks to experience. Please know it can get better. You can find relief so you can work and live your life in peace and handle high stress situations with more confidence. ERP therapy has helped me a ton with finding peace from this.
Learn to accept all thoughts and not try to get rid of them. If you are afraid that you might say something at work, try saying that same thing outside of work over and over until it loses meaning. Please contact NOCD and ask your questions. There are also lots of good tips on the Patrick McGrath Wednesday night webinar on the NOCD page on YouTube. Or really any NOCD webinar can be helpful. Go ahead and check out some of the videos. In addition you can contact NOCD for a free 15 minute call to discuss further. They can offer more detail than I can here. https://www.treatmyocd.com/about-us/contact-us
You know when you have weird thoughts about a coworker and because you have OCD these thoughts really stick and you panic and feel sick? Yeah that’s me and I’ve struggled with having intrusive thoughts about my coworker and now he just got in a relationship with my coworker and my intrusive thoughts are WORSE I thought they would be better? And initially they were because I was relieved that he couldn’t be weird with me now because he has a girlfriend. But this is the thought that i cannot get over- my OCD is like you’re jealous that he doesn’t like you and he’s not with you instead and i envy this girl he is with. Why the fuck am I having these thoughts while I’m in a healthy relationship and love my boyfriend to DEATH- like I know he is my forever. I couldn’t look at him today because I’ve been obsessing over this thought I’ve had in work and now I have to find a new job I hope no one will judge me for these thoughts or maybe someone has had this weird thought before? :(
I’m having a very bad evening with my intrusive thoughts. I was doing really good dealing with them but tonight one hit me hard. I’ve been having a lot of different intrusive thoughts but I’ll have one occasionally about hurting my mom or my dog who I love and they’re the only family I have in my life. They’re my world. I was helping my mom put away the dishes and I had the big kitchen knife in my hand and my intrusive thought was you could stab your mom. And then my brain said I had a twitch in my hand and that meant I wanted to do it. Let me just say that I wouldn’t hurt a fly. I actually caught a fly in a glass and put it outside instead of killing it this evening before this intrusive thought happened. I’m such a gentle and compassionate and caring person and these thoughts instantly cause me to have a panic attack. And I have no one to talk to them about. I know they’re hard for my mom to hear and I don’t want to be any more of a burden than I already am. I do desperately want to tell her and have her reassure me that I’m not crazy or a psycho. Then my thoughts wander to if your hand did flinch could you be a psychopath. Is hurting someone in you. I know it’s not but I feel like my mind is out to get me and hurt me. I’m working so hard and I thought I was doing so good but I need to know why I have these thoughts. They’re not ok. I need someone to help me make sense of why. I know we aren’t supposed to ruminate but I shouldn’t have thoughts like this about people I love and care about the most in the world.
I struggle so bad with intrusive thoughts. They can be so bad that I'll cry because I KNOW that's not how I feel or want to do. (Too embarrassed to say what they're about) I'll constantly try to figure out why I have them, and constantly figure out what they mean, causing me to constantly circle around and around. I had to get on anxeity meds, which helped a little but the thoughts still happen. How do you help yourself with this? How do you know that you're just not some physcopath? 😅
Share your thoughts so the Community can respond
