However, if you do not have a diagnosis of OCD, these thoughts could be doubly disturbing. If you know that you have OCD, you will know that intrusive thoughts are an expected aspect of the condition. How do you know when these thoughts are becoming a problem and not just a reaction to something else going on in your life? In fact, people with OCD are the least likely to act on these thoughts as it is the very fact that they are so appalling and disturbing that causes them so much distress in the first place! Common Signs and Symptoms of Intrusive Thoughts OCD sufferers do not have any control over these thoughts, and they are not impulses or fantasies on which the person will act. They are involuntary and can cause extreme distress as sufferers will repeatedly question why they are having such awful thoughts. However, for people with OCD, the thoughts are overwhelmingly negative, unpleasant and repetitive. Thinking repeatedly about your dream job or a holiday could be categorized as intrusive thoughts. What are Intrusive Thoughts?Īs mentioned previously, everyone experiences some level of intrusive thoughts, both positive and negative. But people with OCD will be extremely distressed and will resort to performing compulsive behaviors and ritualistic tasks in a bid to manage their thoughts. It’s the ‘thoughts about the thoughts’ that cause the problems! Most people with these kinds of thoughts are only mildly bothered or may not give the thought any attention at all. Most OCD sufferers will experience intrusive thoughts and will respond to them with the thought of “Why am I having these disgusting thoughts?”, “’What is wrong with me?”, and “How can I stop having these thoughts?”. While it is true that Intrusive thoughts are a symptom of other mental health conditions such as anxiety and PTSD, what makes them different for OCD sufferers is how they react to them. While for most people, these unwelcome thoughts pop up and then are gone and forgotten, for sufferers of OCD, these thoughts get stuck. Or they may be due to stress, relationship problems or, in the case of new mothers, frustration with parenting! These thoughts are often simply your brain processing your worst fears, and the thought comes and goes. For sufferers of OCD, this is not so easy and their fear that intrusive thoughts mean something important can quickly get out of control and become all-consuming.įor example, many new mothers have unwelcome thoughts, such as standing at the top of the stairs and imagining dropping the baby. People without OCD are able to quickly and easily dismiss these thoughts as nonsensical and undeserving of time and attention. Everyone is likely to experience some level of intrusive thoughts at some point in their lives, especially after a life-changing event such as having a baby or suffering a bereavement but for most they come and go without any problems. One common symptom of OCD is experiencing intrusive thoughts. It can be debilitating and life-altering for those that suffer from it. OCD is much more than wanting everything to be in order. It is maybe because of this that there is so much misunderstanding about the condition – the belief that everyone with OCD loves to clean, for example. OCD rituals can be obvious to other people (like checking if doors are locked) or they can happen inside your head (like counting things, or trying to counteract negative thoughts with positive ones).OCD can take many forms, and it can manifest in different people in different ways. This is how some people get trapped in a cycle of doing the same action again and again, feeling unable to stop. This is because once the ritual is finished, anxious thoughts come rushing back again, sometimes even more extreme. It’s important to realise that with OCD, often our compulsive habits or rituals end up making us feel worse. We might start to believe that if we don’t do them, something bad will happen to us, or to the people around us. But sometimes these rituals or habits become ‘compulsions’, meaning that we think we have to do them. Sometimes having rituals that calm us down can be really helpful. We might start to believe that these actions will get rid of our anxiety or make these thoughts go away. Sometimes when our mind is filled with very upsetting thoughts, we can try to take actions that will bring us relief and make the thoughts go away. These are sometimes known as ‘obsessions’ or ‘obsessive thoughts’. People with OCD have repeating thoughts, images or feelings that are distressing. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a type of anxiety disorder.
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