- Date posted
- 6y ago
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I remind myself that it’s just a theme in OCD, and that the content of my thoughts do not matter. I like the 4 step thing where you notice the thought, say it’s not me it’s my ocd, and then refocus your attention as to not ruminate or do a compulsion. I don’t always do this, because I don’t want it to become a compulsion itself, but sometimes when I’m feeling extra stuck reminding myself that it’s not me it’s my OCD helps a ton with separating me from it. When you’re feeling anxious, try to do an exposure. Our thoughts can be our exposures with this theme, so think about it and purposely add more thoughts until the anxiety goes down. I know it’s seems really scary, but the fear is false. I hope this helps, I struggle with this theme too.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
You aren’t alone, I struggle with this too... try not to attach meaning to the intrusive thoughts. After I have them I may ruminate on them on any other intrusive thoughts in the past of the same theme, sometimes even other themes, then ruminate on memories or experiences to find some “meaning” to connect with the intrusive thought and that can be very scary. Looking up more about false memories was helpful for me because sometimes my memories become cloudy and it makes me anxious about my pocd. Could I do something? Do I do something? Did someone do something to me? What happened exactly? Am I having these thoughts because I want to do them? Rabbit hole...
- Date posted
- 6y ago
i struggle with this also, i just try not to let myself go down the “rabbit hole” just sitting with the discomfort of the original thought instead of moving on from what if to the next what if
- Date posted
- 6y ago
- Date posted
- 6y ago
- Date posted
- 6y ago
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Your brain likes to create patterns, once you see there is a pattern you can interrupt that pattern
- Date posted
- 6y ago
If you have created patterns, then that means you can change them and create new patterns. I read somewhere it takes like 1-2 months to create or stop a habit. I’ve been reacting to my thoughts differently by not reacting. Meaning I’ll let them be there and let them be as loud as they want but I won’t react and if I do I’ll say it’s just OCD or I’ll just be like whatever. I have noticed a significant difference in the way I react to them and a huge decrease in anxiety. You can do it!
- Date posted
- 6y ago
@0823 - that's a good point, and important to remember! Just as easily as I made the pattern, I can change it. The brain is programmable.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Hey everyone, thanks for the thoughtful replies! As I've been thinking about this I feel like my thought path has changed after going down too many rabbit holes. It used to be something like: "trigger -> am I a pedophile? -> Let's test it! -> horrible thought! -> did you react as expected? (Spoiler: no, you didn't) -> now you feel terrible!" NOW, I feel like the test part of it is cut out, and the path is more like "trigger -> horrible thought!! -> now you feel terrible for a variety of reasons!". It sounds to me like I've spent too much time thinking through this stuff, and now my brain (which loves patterns) just automatically makes the association, and skips right to having terrible thoughts. I'm scared I won't be able to break the association, and every time I see a trigger (like a child) I'll have terrible thoughts and lose my grip on my life.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Have you reached out for therapy?
- Date posted
- 6y ago
@Dee - I have started therapy, but I think I'm going to look for a new therapist as my current therapist seems to only be treating one manifestation of my OCD.
Related posts
- Date posted
- 19w ago
This might contain triggering content, but I'm also wondering if others have dealt with this similar thought, and if so, how to deal with it? Overall, I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm able to eat again, which I hadn't been able to do because of how much anxiety I'd been experiencing. I'm spending time around loved ones and not just rotting in my room, and I've been able to wake up without immediately being bombarded by intrusive thoughts. When things first got really bad, I'd wake my mom up every night for reassurance, but I haven't done that in a while either. I'm really proud of myself, but there's still this nagging thought in my mind... While looking through others posts on here, hoping to find advice that'd fit my situation, I ended up making things worse. Someone mentioned how they had a fear that they'd purposely search for illegal content (related to POCD). I panicked, and "what ifs" flooded my thoughts. "What if the intrusive thoughts affect who I am as a person, and I do that?" I'm terrified that I'll search for those things, which I know means I wouldn't do it. But then, another person on here said they'd actually looked for those things, and that freaked me out even more. Does that mean it's possible for that to happen to me? I don't want to do that, but I keep having intrusive thoughts surrounding it. I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm just... stuck. I don't know what to do. I've spoken with other people who have the same fears, but how do I manage this? It's not something I've even thought about before seeing those posts. I've been practicing accepting the uncertainty, but I'm really struggling with this one. I hate this. This morning, I woke up, and the intrusive thoughts were back. It's just disheartening.
- Date posted
- 16w ago
Lately my OCD has been very horrible, it’s been more convincing than ever to the point where I’m genuinely convinced that I like this stuff, when I get a thought, I’ll hear my intrusive thoughts go “oooh, I like that, I’d do that.” and I just don’t freak out nor feel bad, I just feel like I like it even more, and feel like I would do/act on it and like it, and the feeling is strong and it lingers forever? It genuinely feels like I do, and I’m just lying now, i can’t tell if I make these thoughts worse or anything All I remember mostly just being like confused sometimes when these thoughts happen, but since I’m getting strong emotions that I like it, my brain says that means I did and I’m worried about that being true because I don’t understand nor know It’s like I am resisting to like this stuff now, it’s even tougher now than it was before
- Date posted
- 15w ago
Trying not to seek reassurance, but rather connect the dots on my OCD and possible reasons as to why I am the way I am. I have severe OCD (or at least I hope I do) mainly surrounding POCD. I've had symptoms of OCD the majority of my life but this theme has come up more recently. When I was a kid, and i'm talking 6-7, I was first exposed to some really gross adult content online. It was introduced to me by a friend of mine around the same age of me. I saw some really disgusting things that a 6-7 year old should definitely not see. This was not a one time occurrence, as I had been exposed to taboo topics online years to come after that, such as the same friend introducing me to Omegle... And i'm sure you can imagine how that went, theres a lot of genuinely disgusting human beings on there. Coming back to the reason for making this post; is it possible to early exposure to this content could be one of the reasons I struggle with POCD? It genuinely scares me to death because you hear that real p*dos dealt with simular situations when they were kids, so thats kind of making me feel that this could be more than OCD, and I could be a genuinely bad person. My POCD feels so real, that at times i'm fully convinced its not OCD. Sometimes I can't even distinguish the feelings of attraction between a younger person and an older person, except for the feeling of anxiety and fear. Its really hard to explain without going into detail, but it just feels so real. Some feedback on this would be great, thank you all.
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