People with OCD never act on their thoughts

[Guest lily014]

Do you think this is always true? I mean someone with HOCD might have the thought to watch gay porn, and will then act on those thoughts by watching it, or someone with POCD may think about looking at an image of a child to check for attraction, and they will actually find a picture of a child. I think saying "people with OCD never act on thoughts" is quite harmful, I know for me it makes me question whether or not I really do have OCD. Would you agree with this? I guess it would be better to say "people with OCD never act on thoughts that they think will harm others"

[Miranda123]

You can never be 100% sure of anything, but someone with OCD looking at images of a child to see if they get a reaction/looking for signs of arousal for example is not 'acting on their thoughts' it is merely a compulsion. Acting on their thoughts would mean becoming a pedophile out of choice? Which is not really ever going to happen - because people with OCD DON'T want these things and they don't want these thoughts, which unfortunately is why they keep coming back!

[PolarBear]

You are exactly right Miranda.

You have to be able to differentiate between obsessions and compulsions. Obsessions are the intrusive, unwanted thoughts that pop into our heads. We don't act on those.

Compulsions are behaviours, actions, rituals performed to try and alleviate the distress felt by obsessions.

A guy gets the thought, I'm gay. That's the obsession. He checks out gay porn to gauge his reaction, hoping there is none. That's the compulsion. He has not acted on the obsession.

A woman gets the thought, I'm going to stab my husband. That's the obsession. She checks her motivation by watching a slasher movie to see if she likes it. That's the compulsion. She had not acted on the obsession (she did not stab her husband).

[Guest lily014]

Ah okay thank you for the clarification guys! It's just sometimes I see people say things like "someone with OCD would never look at a picture of a child" or "someone with OCD would never seek out gay porn" but I totally disagree with that because those are reassurance behaviours. It's hard when I see people make such statements because I know it's a set back for people with OCD to read things like that.

[PolarBear]

People who don't understand OCD well make erroneous statements sometimes.