I was sitting and got the random intrusive thought "Go smear soap all over your TV and yourself." It was a thought. It's my understanding that we aren't supposed to do anything with intrusive thoughts. My therapist, who works with OCD, said "In the grand scheme of things, it wouldn't matter whether you smeared soap all over your TV or yourself." I don't understand what they meant by that. I thought the whole point was to allow the intrusive thought to be there without doing compulsions. I'm not sure what the purpose of digging into the content is. With OCD out of the picture, it'd still bother me to to smear soap everywhere. Basically why did my therapist say "In the grand scheme of things." It's causing me a lot of distress and throwing me off in what I'm supposed to be doing therapy wise.

I think your therapist was saying that ultimately, even if you were to rub soap on yourself and your tv, what would be that horrible about it? Let’s say your do it. Now you have soap on you and your tv. You’re not comfortable. So you go rinse off and clean your tv off. And that’s what would happen. The intrusive thought is only a thought-it isn’t something you have to do. I can have an intrusive thought that I’m gonna pour water all over my bed. In the grand scheme of things, if I did pour water on my bed, it wouldn’t be a huge deal. I’d have to throw my sheets in the dryer-and that would be inconvenient. Walking myself through the thought helps me to see that I don’t have to fear the thought. The thought has no power, it’s just a thought, I don’t have to pour water on my bed, you don’t have to rub soap on yourself.

Whats the purpose of the soap to begin with? Is it coming from a trauma based experience or a delusional thought?

It was a random thought, I don't know where it came from. But I think delving into the thought is making things worse and I don't know how to tell my therapist that.