Can someone help? My POCD is taking over and I'm terrified to even look at children and everytime I see one I'm afraid I'll feel something and everytime I do I completely shut down I dont want to hurt a child not do I want to be with one, it disgusts me so bad but I'm scared that I'm actually attracted to children and I'm hiding it and I'll eventually enjoy it but just the thought of that makes my anxiety go out the roof I just want it to go away.

That's really comforting to hear, I dont want to break the rules either but it's difficult to recover when you think you're a pedo so it's nice to have a bit of reassurance 💗

How did you break away from it? What techniques do you use when coming across a kid?

@Jo My therapist and I came to the conclusion that a bit of reassurance is okay when it’s something this morally disturbing. You can’t heal without feeling some confidence in yourself that you aren’t what your OCD is making you out to be. Now constantly asking for reassurance, that’s an issue. But I really hope you feel better 💕

@Jo Okay so, there’s a couple ways. I was/am a babysitter so being around kids is a must. But sometimes I just remind myself of who I was before OCD as a means to calm down (not as a compulsion). I also do grounding methods to distract myself from the OCD thoughts. Also don’t do avoidance. When you avoid, it just makes the OCD worse. I’m still stuffing from POCD terribly but it’s nowhere near as bad as before. Also exercise. Exercising works similarly to SSRI’s. Get active when you feel the thoughts are getting to you.

@Keep ur chin up :) Thank you so much, I wanna try to babysit but all of the little ones in my family live out of state, how do you find kids to babysit? I desperately want to get over this, even of that means taking this step.

@Keep ur chin up :) This all started for me not too long ago, and before I was triggered by seeing a pedo on tv I had never thought of being a pedophile before. I hate how ocd works

@Jo Ah see, all the kids I babysit are family members/family friends. You could babysit through word of mouth?

@Jo Same thing nearly happened to me except it was from a tv show

@Keep ur chin up :) Word of mouth? Sorry I'm a bit uninformed lol

@Jo Ah it just means asking around if people need a babysitter lol. Like through your parents, family members, friends, etc. But only do it if it won’t be so triggering. The first time I babysat after getting diagnosed with OCD was just filled with anxiety

@Keep ur chin up :) Oops sorry about that, haha. I'll ask around then :) I'm sorry about your first experience, I hope it's gotten better for you and your anxiety. I've never been paid to babysit, but my family will leave me with the youngsters for awhile and I used to love it, but now everytime I even think about it all I can think of are all the bad things I could end up doing to them :(