Coping with Intrusive Thoughts...

[Guest worried123]

I was coping with my intrusive thoughts which are more so images and then suddenly I had an intrusive 'thought' instead of an image which has now made me doubt myself, even though the thought I had I would never do but I am still doubting myself.

Should I continue with the whole process of letting the thought just float by, acknowledging it is there but not to put too much weight on it? I feel incredibly guilty.

[Binxy]

Hi,

This is the same stuff and you need to approach it in the same way. OCD will try other approaches if it's usual one isn't working.

Keep fighting. Sounds like you're doing a cracking job.

Binx

[daveuk]

hi

what are you intrusives thoughts? my are more like images and lot of replaying in my mind

[Guest worried123]

Thanks Binxy, encouragement keeps me fighting the unfair battle and daveuk they are just horrible intrusive thoughts which I am slowly trying to control. Sometimes I wonder though how long it will take to reduce these thoughts to a tolerable level...

[Binxy]

You'll get there, there will be setbacks; I'm going through none now- at least I hope that's all it is. We just keep pushing

[Poirot]

I can relate - mine started getting more intricate for want of a better word. Like the better I got at ignoring the very aggressive fleeting ones, the more the more complex ones started to come in.

The doubt is a manifestation of OCD. I read somewhere that OCD used to be called "the doubting disease" and, while that's a massive oversimplification, I do think it's quite a fitting title.

I totally understand where you're coming from though - mine are horrible, too. I go through phases where the guilt is just unbearable. But remember: they're just thoughts. What's more, they're thoughts you have no control over. You don't want them there (no matter how much OCD might try to convince you otherwise), you can't help the fact that they're there, whatever the content of your thoughts is, it's the result of an illness that conjures up the exact opposite of what you really think/want. Different people have different strategies but I like to remind myself that intrusive thoughts are a key feature of OCD, and that as a rule of thumb, if it feels like OCD, it is. It's a disorder and therefore we have no reason to feel guilty (but that doesn't stop us).

I hope you start feeling better soon.