How does acceptance work for the more tricky themes? Especially relating to violence, pedophilia etc. The concept of unconditional acceptance is where you’re supposed to try and counter feelings of shame and guilt and fear but knowing that even if your fear came true, you’d cope. I can apply this to existential or sexuality themes, but the darker ones I struggle to understand cause you’d be a social outcast, you’d be harming someone, so how does it work?

When you accept the thought, you are not accepting that it is true. You are just accepting its presence. And when you are saying maybe I will, maybe I won’t, the goal isn’t to say you will, but just to end the cycle of ruminating before you get deep into it. You can still be uncertain about things that could happen and be confident that they probably wouldn’t. Uncertainty doesn’t mean 50/50, it just means making peace with the 1 in something chance that anything could happen (pigs could fly!!). I had this same concern so I read about it & talked to my therapist.

I think it's especially important for these themes

Ugh I struggle with this theme as well. My pocd tells me I agree with pedophilia and that pedos should be allowed to do touch kids. Worst part is I don’t know what’s real and what isn’t. I also struggle with ‘if you do agree with this, no one will talk to you and you will become an outcast.’ Unfortunately, you do just have to go with it and feel those emotions without ruminating or fiddling with the thought