I thought we treat intrusive thoughts as thoughts

I was worried today that I might oversleep and forget to let my friends' dog out in the morning to use the bathroom. My therapist said "What's the worst that could happen?" I told her the worst would be that the dog uses the bathroom inside and I'd clean it up, which I know wouldn't be bad. My therapist then said "You'd even get some extra sleep if you did sleep in". I'm a bit confused though, because I don't want to ACTUALLY sleep in and let the dog out late. And then I think about other intrusive thoughts like "What if you threw your wallet away?" or "What if you smeared soap all over your TV?" or "What if I left the stove on?" Or "What if you leave the gas on?" I don't want these thoughts to actually become real. I thought we treated all intrusive thoughts the same, as ego dystonic, not representing us. Not to make them real. I was thrown off by my therapist saying "the worst that could happen is the dog uses the bathroom and you'd get some extra sleep". Just a bit confused. I guess you could kind of compare this to "What if I'm late for work?". Like yeah, it wouldn't be the end of the world if I was late, and I would get some extra sleep, but I don't want to intentionally make myself late for work.

Username: NotanonNotanon

Date posted: 29w ago

from my treatment, we treated intrusive thoughts by accepting that they could happen. so it would be - yes thats a thought, the dog could do its business inside and I accept that could happen. Then move on with what you were doing before.

Username: rinahello123rinahello123

Date posted: 29w ago

This makes sense to me. I wonder why my therapist threw it "and if you did happen to oversleep, at least you'd get some extra sleep." I don't want to actually oversleep, so I'm not sure why she said that?

Username: NicaNica

Date posted: 29w ago

@rinahello123 She’s trying to desensitize. And oversleeping really isn’t the end of the world as we know it. Most people have overslept an alarm and been late for whatever—your OCD might say it’s the end of the world but it really isn’t. Your intrusive thoughts are NOT the end of the world or predicting it either.

Username: rinahello123rinahello123

Date posted: 29w ago

@Nica I don't think it's the end of the world, I just don't think it'd be helpful to intentionally oversleep, be late for work, or let my friend's dog out late. Sure, I'd get some extra sleep like my therapist said, but I would prefer to not oversleep. Does that make sense?

Username: rinahello123rinahello123

Date posted: 29w ago

@Nica So we let them remain intrusive thoughts? I don't need to actually be late letting my friends dog out? Her dog has bladder issues and I'd like to arrive on the times she asked me come over.

Username: NicaNica

Date posted: 29w ago

@rinahello123 She’s trying to tell you not to obsess over maybe, possibly, oversleeping and being late to work because it happens. Obsessing and doing compulsions doesn’t do any good and just makes your OCD worse, and that could lead to you actually sleeping in and being late because you wore yourself out SO much, you didn’t get up.

Username: rinahello123rinahello123

Date posted: 29w ago

@Nica Okay, I think I understand. So, we don't make our intrusive thoughts real. For example, some of my intrusive thoughts are "What if I left the stove on?" "What if I go smear soap on my TV/phone?" "What if I throw my wallet away?" "What if I left the door unlocked?" "What if I oversleep?". It's okay to just leave them as thoughts and move on with my life?

Username: NicaNica

Date posted: 29w ago

@rinahello123 Yes, that’s it. You accept their presence of existing in your mind—just like those without OCD do all the time—and you go about your day, with whatever you were doing before you have the thought, image, or feeling. The more you pay attention to it, the louder it becomes.

Username: rinahello123rinahello123

Date posted: 29w ago

@Nica Okay thanks. I think I got really confused when my therapist said "if you did oversleep, at least you'd get some extra sleep". She made it sound like oversleeping would be a good thing. If I start intentionally oversleeping to events I commit to, like work or taking care of my friend's dog, I don't see how this would help me. I just want to let OCD thoughts be thoughts, not intentionally make them real.

Username: dshbbpodshbbpo

User type: OCD Conqueror

Date posted: 29w ago

I think the idea isn’t to completely ignore these thoughts or act irresponsibly, simply that fighting with them excessively is actually counterproductive. Like in ur example, yes it’s bad to be late for work, but at the same time obsessing over this doesn’t help. If you can’t habituate the anxiety you may stay up all night and miss work completely the next day. It’s not to walk around clueless but understanding that worrying if the oven is off doesn’t turn off the oven if that makes any sense

Username: rinahello123rinahello123

Date posted: 29w ago

I'm trying to understand what my therapist was getting across.

Username: viluamorim

Date posted: 24w ago

Different themes in one day

Does anyone that is diagnosed have experience having different themes come up in a day? It’s like I ignored one thought and then my mind comes up with another one until it figures out one that is scary enough for me to ruminate. Does it ever make sense? Like today my intrusive thought was an image of me in the space or falling into space which made me also think - this is non sense! Am I going crazy for having such an unrealistic intrusive thought? And then my psychosis OCD comes to play 🫠 it’s EXHAUSTING but I’ve been answering with “maybe or maybe not” and “I don’t care” which is something I saw someone saying that helps and I’ve been using it. I haven’t started ERP yet but hopefully soon. Just this year this came up and I still catch myself feeling so sad and remembering how I was before this. 😭

Young adults with OCD

Username: fuzzy_caterp...

Date posted: 21w ago

acting on thoughts

I have been dealing with intrusive thoughts for a long time, and while most of them don’t affect me anymore, there are ones that really concern me and make me feel panic. They make me feel like I could actually act on the intrusive thought and I’m just holding myself back from it. It’s really scary and I don’t know who I am anymore.

Username: Ocdstrugglesss✝️

Date posted: 15w ago

Intrusive thoughts

Does anyone have any tips on how to move on from intrusive thoughts when you’re constantly afraid that if you ignore them God will be mad at you?

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I thought we treat intrusive thoughts as thoughts

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