I’m a devout Christian and was taught to take my thoughts captive. I started struggling with horrendous intrusive thoughts about 8 months ago. It made me incredibly sick and I almost didn’t make it. I’ve read many books and I’m new to NOCD. How does taking your thoughts captive work with OCD treatment?
The problem with how some Christians approach OCD, is that they give meaning to thoughts. Some Christians don’t believe in mental health, they believe anything that’s happening to you that is deemed negative, has to be the enemy. This couldn’t be further from the truth. What I would argue, is that the enemy tries keeping you from seeking help and wanting you to stay stuck. Whatever thoughts you have, give it to God and go to bed. Intrusive thoughts are common for everyone, they aren’t some underlying reality, they don’t fortune tell and they definitely don’t make up who you are.
When treating OCD, we think about prioritizing your values over the fear... We know that debating/trying to change a thought only makes that thought increase- not what you want with OCD. Instead we focus on disengaging from the content of the thought, and focusing instead on trusting your values (think of this a bit like the redirecting of taking your thought captive). Let's say you have an intrusive thought (by nature, a pop-in thought your brain generates that you don't want) - instead of debating or trying to change the thought, you might focus say "That's an intrusive thought. I'm choosing to focus on living my values here and now instead."
@Anna Dufford This is incredibly helpful. Thank you!!
I battled with this very issue in my 20s and ended up being admitted in a mental health facility. It seems to me the more attention you give to a thought the stronger it gets, at least that’s my opinion… The interesting thing about the verse originally referenced is that the scripture says, bring every thought to the obedience of Jesus. It’s His love, beauty and obedience we are to focus on not our own perfection.
ERP is a perfect example of taking our thoughts captive!!!
@Someone99 I haven’t started ERP yet. What do you mean?
So I've had OCD since I was a child. Like really young. The first intrusive thought I can remember was when I was 5. It just keeps getting worse and lately they've been making me physically ill or throwing me into extreme panic attacks again ( ones where I can't move my body ) the other night I thought God was trying to kill me because I was thinking about ending myself from OCD+ life issues but in reality I was just having a panic attack😭😭it affects me daily. It gets a little better with therapy but I don't see therapy coming into my life any time soon and I'm not even sure if I would want to go (for multiple reasons). To wrap this up if you have severe ocd can you tell me what it's like?? I don't want to label anything without proper research and hearing others perspectives. Thank you!! <3 (My profile says all of my subtypes if that helps any)
Where do I begin with this…….. so my OCD has been around since childhood and has had many themes over the years. I only realised I have it just over 2 years ago. I’ve tried many things to help it not be such a monster and thought I had a good grip on it for a length of time until now! Some of my strategies have been acceptance, change of perception of thoughts and sometimes on hard days just telling myself that no matter what, I have to be brave and go out and live life. In the last few months I’ve developed none OCD related anxiety as well and so have been looking at ways to help with that. Sunday morning I was just casually scrolling TikTok and a video only about 30 seconds long or so comes up, seemingly a therapist of some kind, straight away the video began something like “you cannot replace a thought with another thought” along the lines of “you can’t THINK your way out anxiety” I don’t know the full context of the video it wasn’t long enough, I don’t know who the therapist was I didn’t look but now purely because of that one sentence my OCD has gripped onto it so badly and is trying to tear down some of my strategies because I have used changing my thought patterns a lot to help me, self compassion etc but now because of that video I’m struggling! I’m not looking for answers but I am just really upset and it feels like I’m in an impossible grip of OCD again
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? 😅
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