Anyone else get OCD/responses ab taboo/wrong sexual thoughts? I cannot figure out how to stop them.

Hey man! Of course. I battle HOCD and other smaller themes a lot. OCD likes to latch onto things that are irrational or taboo as you put it. Notice, you probably don’t obsess about things you are sure of in your heart or things that aren’t that big of a deal to you, right? Look at it this way, you probably won’t obsess about the sky being blue for two reasons: 1: it’s above you just look up and get your 100% answer no doubts. 2: the sky color is not all that important to your life. Now, let’s look at something ocd loves to latch onto like sexual orientation/sexuality, harm, etc because the answers to these questions are not really known; they are not concrete. Just know, trying to “stop” the thoughts only bring more thoughts. Forget about what the theme is. Let’s say you obsess/think about your car for. When you think “try to not think about your car,” you just started the cycle of thinking about your car. Then you try it again, and again, and again. Now, imagine the theme being really scary and uncomfortable as all ocd themes are. Now that cycle becomes even stronger as your brain loops to find answers that don’t exist to questions that don’t exist. I hope that made sense, if not, read it again a few times. To practice this, we let the thoughts be. We don’t give them attention. Your brain is built to think. In the end, you get to choose what thoughts you act on not your ocd. To turn down the alert system that is so high in all us who battle ocd, you have to expose yourself to the situations/thoughts. Welcome them, sit with them, calmly let them come in and go out without putting emphasis on them. The more you expose, the less prominent the bad thoughts become. God bless 💪🏼🙏

I’m going to be straight up real with you, ocd is something that you more or less learn to manage very very well than “recover” from it. Don’t get me wrong, ocd used to control my life 100%, and now through faith, erp, meditation, Meds all combined, you can move mountains. I’ve seen it. You gotta put the work in though. You gotta sacrifice who you are now for what you will become. Remember thoughts are just thoughts, you always have the power to decide which to listen to and which to just let fly by. Through faith and values, you will learn to live, love and enjoy life through your ocd! You will also learn to embrace the power you were given and use ocd as a strength instead of a weakness. Never settle 💪🏼💯

Some days it’s in the background, some days the foreground, some days no ground haha. You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable is how I like to put it. Our brains are built a certain way, but that way that hinders us at times is the same way that allows you to excel in certain areas ahead of others. Find your stronghold as you explore how your ocd can benefit you and others, then you will see what I mean. Ocd is anxiety driven, so the more things you can do to lower your anxiety levels (reading, meditation, exercise, family time, etc) I’ve noticed the lower anxiety I have and the less my thoughts take over. Remember thoughts are thoughts. People have thoughts all day long thousands and never act on them. Unfortunately we have thoughts about the same obsession theme.