TW: Sexual intrusive thoughts, rape. I haven’t heard anyone discuss this theme, and I’m not looking for reassurance just feedback on how people feel/if others have experienced it. I’ve experienced sexual intrusive thoughts in many capacities-pedophilia, not being attracted, cheating vs. being cheated on, all of the “common” ones it seems. In the past I also struggled with rape themes and worrying if I would rape someone and also worried that my sexual encounters with my boyfriend and now fiancé were consenting. In the beginning of our relationship we struggled briefly with sexual boundaries and he has since become a really thoughtful sexual partner. I worked with an OCD therapist doing ERP for this theme among others for over a year, and despite having improved tremendously in certain areas I’ve seen my sexual intrusive thoughts come back in a mutated form. What I’m wondering about, and what I haven’t heard anything about so far has been people being triggered by hearing of events of sexual assault and/or the #MeToo movement. In no way am I defending sexual predators, but whenever I hear another story about sexual assault my ocd is triggered. I worry if I’m having false memories of what I experienced, if my fiancé is actually “bad” and if I should be with him due to having had issues around consent/boundaries in the past. I especially worry with “cancel culture” being so popular and the perspective that a person should never be given another chance/forgiven/educated if they make a wrong decision. (Again not defending predators-that’s a whole different realm) but I think especially in my generation people deserve the chance to be corrected and be able to learn. Not having willingness to learn/change and do better is the problem. I know in my heart my fiancé is a good natured person and I’ve never felt anything but safe with him. I hate these thoughts. Thanks for reading if you got to this point, I’d love to hear your thoughts.