Does anyone make themselves say intrusive thoughts in their head to see how it makes them feel or if they believe them? Like testing yourself ?
Yes, I do. I have intrusive thought of a bad word or phrase. And my ocd brain tells me I said it outloud. And I worry if someone heard me. So I have to whisper it to test it. Then I worry if anyone heard me whisper it. And then I have compulsions to keep whispering it. Over and over again. This can last hours.
I just do it to prove to myself I don’t mean it
I don't make myself say the intrusive thoughts, but I get a lot of thoughts I don't like. Like, flashing pictures or things that feel like my brain playing a video of me doing something horrible. I try to interpret it as: My brain recognizes a possibility. It gave me these images for awareness of danger and to help me decide how to proceed safely. I think this is why those thoughts are there. To let you be aware of a worst case scenario. Like climbing up a ladder and seeing an image of yourself dead on the floor. It's not you wishing for your own death, it's a reminder to stay careful. I think we often get the wrong message. We think those thoughts happened because we're a bad person who wants that worst case outcome. At this point I don't have a lot of trouble with this anymore. I've had these kinds of thoughts/images my whole life, and I've only ever used them to stay safe. We're wired for survival. We're wired to be in nature. The indoor life of carpet and drywall is unnatural and under stimulating. I think the brain has many different parts to it, and all of them care about you staying alive. Some of them have fragmented access to the space where your conscious exists, and all they can do is inject one thought at a time. And, some of them don't have a language that's obvious to you. You have to learn how to interpret it.
@roweder I don’t make myself say them out loud I make myself say them in my head
@gracexocd Sorry I did read that. I was thinking about the rest of what I wanted to say when I typed that part of my comment. I meant I don't make myself say the thoughts I deal with in my head. They just pop in randomly. I guess what I was talking about wasn't super related then. But, maybe it's sort of related to how your thoughts start?
@roweder How did u make it so they were less frequent or didn’t effect you as much?
I recently had a intrusive thought and felt the need to go over it to make sure I didn’t feel anything sexual. Part of the reviewing included creating a scenario similar to the intrusive thought to see if anything was felt. Thankfully no evidence of any feelings. However I can’t seem to find anything on the internet about creating scenarios when checking a previous intrusive thought. Is this common and what is it called has anyone experienced this. I feel very alone. Any feedback would be helpful
Please how can an intrusive thought be distinguished from our own thoughts ?
does anyone else constantly suffer from intrusive thoughts? it makes my head ache & i can barely think straight.
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