tw: racist intrusive themes This is particularly long so thank you in advance for reading. I just want to preface this with a few things. Firstly, I am a black girl so my perspective on the matter is personal. Secondly, the person under fire is a non-black person. These two facts are very important. So I was scrolling through instagram when a post from a page I know well appeared on my timeline. This page tends to talk about several pressing social issues and often show cases other people’s tik toks/posts and while providing their opinion about the subject at hand. Typically I agree with a lot of their views but something about this particular post of theirs did not sit right with me. The person they decided to show case on their page today was a non-black girl who was sharing one of her intrusive thoughts. The thought in question was “shout the N word”. I’m assuming the girls intention behind sharing this intrusive thought was to make other people who suffer with similar themes feel seen. However it seems like the overwhelming majority, including the page, agreed that this particular intrusive thought was inappropriate to share because of its racist nature and that the girl should’ve “ kept it to herself” ( a phrase ive seen used many times through out the comment section). Some going as far as to say that this was not an intrusive thought but rather a justification for racist ideation. Essentially accusing her of “normalizing” the racist nature of her theme. I believe these statements are really damaging and cruel. People were confirming her inner most insecurities. They literally validated her intrusive thoughts by saying that they do indeed prove that she is racist. I couldn’t help but feel sad. What made it worse is that others were saying things along the lines of “my intrusive thought is * insert violent act here*....not racism” As if violent thoughts about hurting others are somehow more acceptable to share than thoughts about shouting offensive things. Intrusive thoughts are any thoughts that you have that you do not want or can’t control. Most intrusive thoughts are awful, that’s what makes it intrusive. I just couldn’t see why this particular awful thing was somehow more damning than the others. I just wanted to see what people think about this. Am I being tone deaf in this situation? I can’t tell if I’m missing something here.

"Pure" OCD

rvpink

Date posted: 4y

just think the conversation should’ve been a more open, compassionate, and educated one. Most of the statements made towards the girl were counter productive and damaging to those who suffer with taboo themes.

Date posted: 4y

exactly, i feel like people misunderstood what “intrusive thoughts” mean as it’s ego dystonic, not just random thoughts. it kind of scared me how much backlash this caused, like imagine if someone who had harm ocd, pocd, moral scrupulosity ocd had shared their thoughts and how it’d be met online. it’s why i hate mental health advocacy sometimes, because people only focus on depression and anxiety which i think is fantastic that it’s being brought up to light, but there are so many illnesses that don’t get taken seriously, we need to have conversations with these, even if those topics make us feel uncomfortable, but this is how it can help people understand their thoughts and seek the necessary treatment.

rvpink

Date posted: 4y

@s right!! Depression and anxiety are only the beginning to a much broader and nuanced understanding of mental health. I think there are so many equally pressing conditions that are really neglected. Like I literally only truly understood what OCD was like 2 months ago when I was diagnosed lol. with my previous and misinformed idea of OCD, i never ever thought i could’ve had it and turns out there’s a possibility all my immediate relatives have it and that blows my mind.

Elaine8

Date posted: 4y

@rvpink I was the same before I got diagnosed, I literally thought the C in OCD stood for cleaning🤦‍♀️I wish it had been more talked about and I could have recognised it at the beginning

boymom137

Date posted: 4y

@Elaine8 Not funny really, but kind of cute🤣 That you thought the “C” stood for “Cleaning”❤️

Elaine8

Date posted: 4y

@boymom137 I was very uneducated 😅

Khensani

Date posted: 2y

@rvpink Are you still on this platform

Date posted: 4y

I saw this exact same post shared on twitter. I’m not black so I can’t speak for the black community, but I’m not white either, so I can see the frustration of sharing this on tiktok, instead between you and a therapist. I completely agree that some things need to be shared between you and your therapist only, but it is sad because that only perpetuates why neurotypicals see us with OCD as our worst fears because they haven’t seen those taboo obsessions represented in the media. I think we need to give more voices to those in the BIPOC neurodivergent community, and advocate and share more reputable information around those with racism OCD and other taboo centred OCDs, because seeing some of the backlash from that tiktok, even though the tiktok did irk me a bit and could’ve been executed better, people die from OCD, and unfortunately, so many people go about their lives thinking that what they have is incredibly terrible.

rvpink

Date posted: 4y

I think it’s very plausible that the original tik tok’s message could’ve been poorly executed, but I’ve never seen the original as the girl deleted it later on. I do agree some thoughts do not need to be expressed in excruciating detail but I feel like “shout the n word” is a relatively mundane representation of a taboo subtype. ans I also wholeheartedly agree that BIPOC neurodivergents deserve more representation as we are often under diagnosed and looked over!!

Cersei

Date posted: 4y

People are very easily offended these days. It creates an unsafe space to discuss things like intrusive thoughts.

boymom137

Date posted: 4y

Amen🙏🏻❤️

Wes8

Date posted: 4y

I haven't seen this instagram post myself, but it does sound like that girl was treated unfairly and harsh.

rvpink

Date posted: 4y

the post can be found @trillblackgirl

Wes8

Date posted: 4y

@rvpink I just now saw the post, and yeah I totally see what you mean. Many of the comments were shaming her as if she didn't have ocd, not fair at all

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