Does anybody have constant intrusive thoughts but no bodily reactions to them? Like your mind is constantly repeating words and phrases but your body is numb to it because you've done it so much?

Yes! I’ve been there. I honestly think I got to that place because my body was exhausted and SO done needing to keep up with my compulsions and rituals. Since I can’t control the thoughts that come to me, I just would let them come even if they were constantly repeating the words and phrases and honestly this helped because it helped me become indifferent to the thoughts. I noticed if I didn’t react to them, even mentally, and just let them keep repeating, they would slow down. I think that’s your body telling you it’s so over reacting to the same thoughts and phrases over and over again.

I think it’s a good thing. That’s your body showing you how it can’t keep up with that many intrusive thoughts all happening at once. When I started to give up reacting to the thoughts, my body followed and I didn’t obsess over how my body was or wasn’t reacting. Reacting is what you want to try and refrain from - that is what continues the cycle, so if your body isn’t reacting and feels numb to the thoughts, it will train your thoughts that you aren’t affected by them as much. That’s my personal experience!

Does it make you feel better knowing you are starting to feel numb to these thoughts?

Why does it attack the things we care about so much?

That’s part of what makes this disorder exactly what it is. It’s an obsessive disorder, so it’s natural for it to attack what you or I might obsess over which is likely to be things that mean the very most to us. Our brain knows us well and that OCD goes after what triggers it most. It’s best to focus on how to stop it in its tracks rather than why it does what it does because we will honestly never know. We just know it’s a nasty disorder, but I try my best to live with such hope that I can control it in the long run because I’ve proven it to myself. Just like your body is feeling numb and indifferent to some of these thoughts, allow it to be that way instead of reacting as best as you possibly can.