Trigger warning: therapy/ false diagnosis worry. Haven’t posted in a while as things have been looking up, but I went back to CBT today and the latest worries I’ve had my therapist said don’t fit into “OCD categories” and are more ‘what if’ anxiety worries or low self esteem/ self critical thoughts .... my intrusive thoughts seem most distressing and real in times of high anxiety and that’s when I struggle to let them go and take them seriously. Now I’m worried that they were all real, including sexual/ violent/ immoral ones and that I thought I had OCD and I don’t. I thought I was part of a community of people going through the same thing but maybe I’m just a monster if my thoughts don’t even fit the standard OCD pattern :( Anyone feel the same way?

I think we all doubt we have ocd. If we believed we had ocd than the intrusive thoughts would have no power bc we know they’re just ocd and not real.

I have the same fears. I feel like I don’t “perfectly” fit the OCD category and all my doctors are missing something. But that’s the nature of the disease - it makes you doubt EVERYTHING. Just a constant sense of unease with things. I wish I had something more encouraging, but just know I feel this way too!

I can relate. There are times where I doubt my OCD diagnosis because I have symptoms that don’t “fit” into the OCD category. You’ve got this though, you were able to do it before and you can do it again :)

Hi Ruth, I relate to that and am also often worried that it‘s not OCD, also with my harm theme. I would say: there is a standard pattern but each of us has individuality, so it never fits a standard pattern 100%, it‘s not possible cause we all are individuals with individual minds. Did your therapist relate to your sexual/ violent/ immoral thoughts or was he talking about other anxieties and after that you were doubting OCD?

Thank you all. I just got unsettled when the therapist said that if it doesn’t fit into “harm” or “fear” then it doesn’t sound like ocd. Of course I feel afraid and distressed about some of my thoughts especially when they don’t feel like me, but I often doubt smaller things like my relationship, my abilities, my sanity haha... The idea that I’m wrong and wasting nhs time has upset me a little, but I’ll keep going x