Hey guys, does anyone know how to deal with compulsive thoughts. I’ve been having them for many years now but they’re starting to bother & effect me more than ever now. Any suggestions would be great 😊

Hi! Do you mean intrusive thoughts (upsetting thoughts that pop into your head; not something you can control) or mental compulsions (things you think on purpose to make your anxiety go away; for example analyzing or “replacing” your intrusive thoughts).

Yes they’re intrusive thoughts, but they’re compulsive as they won’t go away. For example if I don’t do something a certain amount of times someone I know will get sick (even tho I know it’s not true my mind makes me think it will happen). They’re disturbing thoughts like this I can’t control and don’t know how to cope with them. I’ve limited my daily activities at times due to these thoughts because they begin to cause me major distress

@ching I’m sorry you’re going through this. I know how hard it is. Intrusive thoughts are one of the main features of OCD. Everyone gets intrusive thoughts, but while most people are able to totally ignore them as irrelevant background noise, people with OCD assign meaning to the thoughts and do compulsions to try to make them go away. One compulsion is avoidance: limiting your daily activities may be avoidant behavior. I HIGHLY recommend working with an ERP therapist if you can. In ERP, you do Exposures that confront you with your fears (for example reading articles about illness) and learn Response Prevention techniques to help you stop doing compulsions in response to your fears. When you stop reacting to the thoughts, they don’t go away entirely, but your brain learns that the thoughts are irrelevant and that you don’t need to panic or pay attention to them. ERP helps people live normally and focus on the things they love and care about rather than focusing on their fears and intrusive thoughts. I hope that makes sense! If you’re able to, start therapy with a NOCD therapist! It’s life-changing.