Studies suggest that OCD is heritable. How do you deal with the fact, you might be responsible for your children getting it? ?

I absolutely believe OCD is heritable. My maternal grandmother had it (undiagnosed but had all the symptoms), my mother does not, and I do. Am I angry that I have OCD? No, all genetic inheritance is a gamble. I plan to have children and should they have OCD, yes, it would be due to my lineage, but also who better to help them than someone who has experienced it themselves. I am far enough along in recovery that I can say it’s a manageable condition. Furthermore, the amount of research that is being done makes me hope that it will be a very easily controlled condition with medication and therapy in the future.

having it run in your family might increase the chance of you getting it but it doesn't mean only genes could make your kids get it. Other things have affect either so yeah taking good care of my children through their teenage years and making them feel like they can share anything with me ... you can raise healthy children don't worry :)

@urfriendfatima Yes, I have pure O so all exposure is imaginal for me. My former biggest worry (running over someone) required extensive scripting and driving intentionally through crowded areas/ over bumps to get over

Script: “I am afraid I may have run over someone without having realized it or may accidentally do so in the future. If I were to find out this had happened, I would feel terrible, like a murderer and a bad person. I would feel so sorry that I did not stop to get them medical care and left them to die. I don’t know how I could live with myself if this happened. If this happens I would be arrested and my name would be on the news as a wreckless and callous murderer. I would have to live the rest of my life in prison. My family would be so ashamed of me and I would be ashamed of myself.”

My therapist wrote this one. Basically the formula is this: I am afraid [scenario] will happen. Use triggering words ex: kill, murderer, etc you associate with the event. Describe how you will feel if this were to happen. How would your family and the public react? How would the victim react? What would happen to you [insert your catastrophic thoughts here]. Jon Abramowitz has a lot of scripting exercises in his workbook

Read it and use the tool on here to play it over and over. My therapist said for an hour a day

my mom has ocd (undiagnosed cause she’s old fashioned and doesn’t want to be “drugged up” if she goes to therapy) she knows she has it too. she shows all the symptoms and it’s very obvious to an OCD sufferer that she is suffering with it as well.

so yes i believe OCD is heritable

My father and my grand father had ocd. Therapist say that its à genetic factor ! We can hope in à better future with thé Big PROGRESS in science and research !

@worrieddriver have you done imaginal exposure in your recovery?

You see, I could do that for harm, or responsibility. It got like a hammer horror movie and worked well. It is worked for POCD sort of. But I have literally visualised myself committing dastardly deeds. Not much in the way of groinals and anxiety much less. But my sex drive is low, and I know they will intrude during. Plus, well......it feels different with sex. The intention is to challenge fear but I don’t want to do visualisations if it is ACTUALLY dangerous. Scripting doesn’t do a lot for me, and midnfullness while awesome is slow burn whereas I want to aggressively kick the fuck out of this thing. I’m even breaking moral codes with these imagined situations to do so but I remind myself WHY I am doing it. I will walk through hell. I just don’t want to do something that actually damages my brain or changes me.

@WorriedDriver. Would you mind giving an example of the script you were given? Or tell me where to look for advice? I too have “Hit and Run OCD” and it is terrible. I haven’t been avoiding driving recently. But it still keeps bothering me.

How do you use the scripts? Say it allowed? Read it? ?

Did this rally help? ? I don’t want to try something and take two steps back....

An hour a day? Wow! And eventually you don't care anymore? ?