- Date posted
- 45w ago
Intrusive thoughts
Does anyone have any advice for intrusive thoughts and "what ifs"? How can I try to care less?
Does anyone have any advice for intrusive thoughts and "what ifs"? How can I try to care less?
All I know is for a couple years I have desensitized myself to my intrusive thoughts by looking at them with curiosity instead of facts. I would literally just be like “interesting. Oh well” when I would get an intrusive thought instead of battling it or trying to make it stop. Even for the worst ones. It was so hard but it was what my therapist told me to do. Over time, I started noticing I was having them less bc I wasn’t alarming my brain to be afraid of them anymore. Now I still get them occasionally but they pass so much quicker and don’t rule my life as bad. Hope this helps you!
@EFFMYOCD I loved this, thank you!
I did this too! Just let the thoughts be there even if they were terrible. I used to have dreams too, and i dreamt i even liked it. Did the same thing, worked.
Do you ever try to answer the what if questions, like exposing yourself to the reality you fear, and then coming up w a solution?
@charissepisces2021 I usually get random what ifs and sometimes they are so bad like what if I did this and I don’t know if I did or not. They usually are pretty bad so trying to expose myself to them is pretty hard. I’m going to try to just not focus on the thought.
@charissepisces2021 Do you have any tips?
Simple, don’t engage. Focus on literally anything else, don’t try to suppress the thought but just acknowledge and move on. If you experience anxiety because of them, that’s okay it’ll pass, just don’t interact with the thought.
@Mikecicle thank you!!
This might contain triggering content, but I'm also wondering if others have dealt with this similar thought, and if so, how to deal with it? Overall, I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm able to eat again, which I hadn't been able to do because of how much anxiety I'd been experiencing. I'm spending time around loved ones and not just rotting in my room, and I've been able to wake up without immediately being bombarded by intrusive thoughts. When things first got really bad, I'd wake my mom up every night for reassurance, but I haven't done that in a while either. I'm really proud of myself, but there's still this nagging thought in my mind... While looking through others posts on here, hoping to find advice that'd fit my situation, I ended up making things worse. Someone mentioned how they had a fear that they'd purposely search for illegal content (related to POCD). I panicked, and "what ifs" flooded my thoughts. "What if the intrusive thoughts affect who I am as a person, and I do that?" I'm terrified that I'll search for those things, which I know means I wouldn't do it. But then, another person on here said they'd actually looked for those things, and that freaked me out even more. Does that mean it's possible for that to happen to me? I don't want to do that, but I keep having intrusive thoughts surrounding it. I've been doing so well these past few days. I'm just... stuck. I don't know what to do. I've spoken with other people who have the same fears, but how do I manage this? It's not something I've even thought about before seeing those posts. I've been practicing accepting the uncertainty, but I'm really struggling with this one. I hate this. This morning, I woke up, and the intrusive thoughts were back. It's just disheartening.
Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with intrusive thoughts&images. At first i had intrusive thoughts around my partner, now it’s centred around me & I can’t be around window ledges or medication due to a story I read online(it’s too triggering for me) . Sometimes I feel like I can’t leave my bed due to the thoughts being so overwhelming I just break down and want to sleep. I aren’t taking any medication or therapy yet. I worry that if I don’t give my thoughts a reaction that my thoughts are true and not OCD. I’ve had these thoughts 24/7 for 2 months.
I’m having a big OCD relapse and would like to hear anyone’s tips on how to be present and healthily deal with these intrusive thoughts and the “need” to preform compulsions. Thank you!!
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