- Date posted
- 4y
- Date posted
- 4y
hello! first off - the fact that you're so worried and distressed about these things means they're not your true intentions / you wouldn't do them. many people (mental illness or not) deal with intrusive thoughts related to harm. it's just people with anxiety or ocd (even if u haven't been diagnosed) think that these thoughts mean something about them, when they don't. the fact that you're distressed is a clear sign that they're not your values💗 you're not alone in this. intrusive urges and images are also very common! the thing with intruisve urges is that they're not the same as a real urge. for example - you may have an impulsive urge to cut your hair & this is an urge that you WANT to do. intrusive urges are urges that you don't want - hence why they're called intruisve. they can be scary, especially when you don't know much about them. but they're common! @windsor.flynn on instagram (i recommend following her or looking at her page) has a post specifically for "how intrusive thoughts can feel like urges" and it's related to harm ocd / harm thoughts, i recommend checking it out! as for you avoiding people - that will just make your anxiety worse. you see - our brains don't know real danger from danger we create in our brains. you may think that avoiding people is helping but it's really fueling your thoughts (fueling them as in they will become more frequent not that you'd act on them). don't give power to your thoughts! they're just thoughts. hangout with your friends or family!<3 i promise you you're not a monster or whatever else you may be thinking you are. many people deal with this.
- Date posted
- 4y
i also recommend mindfulness. it helped me with my intrusive thoughts and anxiety! there's many books you can buy. what helps is when you get an intrusive thought, don't pay attention to it but also don't push it away. don't try and figure out what it means bc it doesn't mean anything. just let it flow by, eventually if you keep doing this the thoughts will become less and less. and then when you do get an intrusive thought (bc everyone gets them!!), you would've developed a new and better relationship to it, and you'll let it just pass by because you'll know it doesn't mean anything about you!! and do the same for urges, let them pass by and don't try and figure out what they mean.:)
- Date posted
- 4y
Thank you so much!! Yes, these thoughts feel very real sometimes, it’s scary, it’s like I have something disturbing stuck in my mind following me 24/7!! I will follow the ig account! And also I feel like this is not OCD, like this is something real, but I guess it’s part of OCD. Yes I feel urges sometimes, like if I could go and act on my thoughts, but I really don’t want to, and it feels like an urgency. Thank you so much :)
- Date posted
- 4y
@Anonymous that's totally apart of ocd & anxiety! i'm not diagnosed but i have bad anxiety and get intrusive thoughts, so i know what u mean! but that's normal<3
- Date posted
- 4y
@coucou Thank you! It makes me relieved <3 I hope I cope this, because it’s really uncomfortable :(
- Date posted
- 4y
@Anonymous you will get through!! <3 theres always blue sky after a storm :)
- Date posted
- 4y
@coucou Thank youuu that’s so sweet🥰
- Date posted
- 4y
I have Harm OCD and this sounds pretty textbook. OCD can feel VERY real. And I second mindfulness. A good rule when it comes to thoughts is this: If you didn't choose it, let it be.
- Date posted
- 4y
Did this happen to you too? And thank you for the advice!!
- Date posted
- 4y
@Anonymous Yes, I believe it happens to most people that have OCD, and it can be especially scary with Harm. I've definitely felt the urges along with thoughts and images. It's all part of OCD which is how it latches on. It is so scary. Everyone with OCD has questioned whether or not they have OCD or if this is who we've always been. I had that thought just this morning. But honestly, you know who you've always been? Right? You know it. Psychopaths would not have distress over these thoughts. I've been there too. Afraid of schizophrenia, psychosis, turning into a psychopath, sociopath...all of these fears are also common in conjunction with Harm OCD because its like a brain hijacking. OCD loves to ask you what if, what if, what if. I recommend Ali Greymond on YouTube, and listen to a few talks from Jeffery Schwartz as well. Also, Dr. Michael Greenberg has a great interview on the OCD Stories podcast, also on YouTube. It sounds like you're ruminating a lot, and his methods might help!
- Date posted
- 4y
@CB6236 Thank you! Yess it’s the fear of turning into a psychopath, or going schizophrenic, or the fear that you might act on your thoughts and not knowing if that will happen or not. Yes I ruminate a lot, so thank you for your recommendations, I will check those out!
- Date posted
- 4y
I fear I might have psychopath characteristics, I really feel like I could be one :(
Related posts
- Date posted
- 25w
I’m really struggling with something related to me ocd, and I would appreciate kind and supportive advice. If you can’t relate or don’t think anything you have to say would be helpful, I kindly ask pls refrain from commenting this is a really sensitive topic for me. Recently, I’ve noticed a pattern that feels something extremely new and distressing. The first time it happened I remember telling myself before self pleasuring that I am in control no matter what thought comes into my mind because I wanted to prove to myself that these thoughts are just from OCD and I know who I am and an intrusive that came out of no where, and i suddenly felt an intense fear that I was acting on it. In the moment I genuinely felt like I did. And afterword, I panicked and started questioning myself. This SAME FEELING has happened three times in a row each time, the intrusive thought was unwanted and random, and completely against my morals most recently it involved pocd and it feels even worse because it generally felt like I acted on it the thought in the moment while I was self pleasuring the panic doesn’t hit until afterwards when I stop :/ I start thinking that maybe I generally made a mistake and I’m now just realizing that it’s wrong because it generally feels like that :( but when I actually think about it again goes against my morals and values doesn’t make sense it feels incredibly real, and I can’t seem to shake this feeling off that I may have acted on it I’m terrified because I never wanted these thoughts in the first place. And I definitely didn’t choose them. If I had known, I would’ve had these intrusive thoughts I wouldn’t have self pleasured in the first place but it’s extremely hard to convince myself that this may be OCD because I feel like I have no other reason to believe that I didn’t act on it :/
- Date posted
- 24w
I’m sharing this bc I need advice or even support from anyone who can relate. If you can’t relate and don’t think you’ll say anything helpful or kind pls don’t comment anything… I’ve been struggling with somethings that’s making me question myself. There has been moments while self pleasuring when I get intrusive thoughts, in those moments it feels like I’m enjoying or even self pleasuring myself bc of the thought. Right after I immediately have an anxiety attack and my HEART drops bc it feels terrible I feel like a disgusting monster :( ppl have told me I haven’t done a bad bc of how intense my guilt and panic are but I keep thinking that MAYBE I made a horrible decision in the moment and the guilt is just realising that it’s just wrong this doesn’t make sense to me because I’ve always told myself that I would never act on this in 1 million years and I’ve been known that these things are wrong so I’m just like constantly questioning myself these feelings and exact same situation has happened two times already I even promised myself that I wouldn’t act on anything beforehand and yeah, I still felt like I did act on my thought during my alone time I’m genuinely convinced that I’m a horrible and it’s even got into the point where I don’t wanna be here anymore and I don’t even think this is my OCD :( tbh
- Date posted
- 22w
I’ve been feeling the urge to avoid intimacy or purposefully engage (for reassurance that I won’t give into a compulsion) because of intrusive thoughts and fear that I’ll “check/test” my reactions. My OCD is making me so scared that I’ll purposefully think of a child and try to see if I like it. It’s so complicated but I guess I’m mentally checking if I would mentally check during intimacy. I’ve even envisioned myself checking and it’s making me so nauseous. I know it’s a compulsion like any other but the sound of “touching yourself to the thought of a child” sounds atrocious and vile. I’m terrified I’ll automatically start checking next time I am being intimate. I truly feel so worried. If anyone has gone through something similar, I’d appreciate hearing your experience. Or if anyone has any advice?
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