So I’m at work and I was in my Break room waiting to start work and I had to stretch and but I had an intrusive thought while stressing and now I think I said it out loud mind that whole time I haven’t talked to anybody or anything. I heard it’s possible to talk while stretching and now I’m even more scared because somebody was infront of me
You’re ok and safe. Take some deep breathes and let the anxiety be there, you can handle that feeling, just don’t respond to it
But the thought was so immoral like what do i do
@Anonymous Yeah there isn’t anything to do. The problem is you treat that thought like there’s something to do about it. There is only one solution. Hold that thought in your mind and let it make you feel anxiety, and don’t try to fix that. That exactly what you are avoiding, you are trying to make it go away and neutralize it. It’s going to keep coming back until you let it make you feel scared. Your body needs to feel it, the feeling of panic, then it will go away. If you let that thought be there without compulsing, ie ruminating or thinking about it, you just only think that single thought, you will feel your body begin to panic. Chest tight, breathing fast. If you stay there long enough your body will learn that thought isn’t dangerous. With enough practice, the thought will come, you won’t feel scared, and it will go away and drift off. This happened to me. You’re scared because it’s wrong. I get it. And you know yourself your fear isn’t true. But your body doesn’t know you are safe. You have to let your body learn this way.
I used to have this problem also. And I found out that A LOT of people with OCD fear that they have spoken their intrusive thoughts out loud. There is good news! You can treat this with ERP therapy ! Here's an article : https://www.treatmyocd.com/what-is-ocd/info/related-symptoms-conditions/worried-youll-say-your-intrusive-thoughts-out-loud-heres-what-experts-say Also, if you have more questions, feel free to message me back. I can tell you what I did.
Please tell me how to handle it I’m so scared right now
@Anonymous You handle this just like you handle every other OCD issue--and that means ERP therapy. This means that if you speak a word out loud, that you ALLOW it. You have to realize that nothing bad is going to happen EVEN IF you did speak the word out loud. When we have OCD, we can't really control whether or not these little urges or feelings actually manifest in the heat of the moment. There's too many swirling emotions and we don't even know if our mouth is moving etc. etc. So the answer is that you don't have to worry EVEN IF you did do it. So in my life, it was really scary, but I have allowed the out loud, intrusive words to pass by. And then I just keep moving on with my life. I don't ruminate whether or not that was a good or bad thing. I don't feel like my life is "over," even if I said something out loud. It was a big step of faith for me to do this, and the hardest ERP that I've ever done. But I have experienced so much freedom now on the other side of it.
Just tell yourself that was a stupid intrusive thought and I’m not going to dwell on it. Use your imagination and think of that dark thought being a dark cloud and the wind blows it further and further and further away until you don’t see it anymore. Then all of a sudden you see a bunch of white clouds drifting in the sky. God must’ve gave me that analogy because I never thought of it that way before. Lol ❤️
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