Persistent intrusive thoughts

[Autumn Rain]

Hi,

I have recently been struggling with intrusive thoughts and images that I can't seem to get rid of. I do not wish to go into detail about these thoughts but they are of a highly sensitive nature and they have caused me a lot of distress. Two weeks ago I was feeling suicidal because these thoughts made me feel like such an awful person who didn't deserve to live. I am in a better place now than I was then but I am still having trouble with these sorts of thoughts and they are constant! It seems like every waking minute these thoughts are stuck in my head and it's driving me insane.

I've mostly gone past the "what do these thoughts about me?" stage. I know they don't mean anything but they are still there and I just want them to go away because they are so disgusting, messed up and wrong.

How can I make them go away?

[Ashley]

55 minutes ago, Autumn Rain said:

How can I make them go away?

This is a good question, and the one most people with OCD will perhaps ask at the start of the problem.  It's also the natural question to ask, because it makes sense doesn't it, I have a problem (in this case horrible thoughts) and I want the problem to go away. It's a logical question to ask.

What we have learned with OCD is two things.   One of which is what we know with OCD is that the thoughts themselves are rarely the problem, but in fact how we deal with the thoughts.  For example, people without OCD have the odd graphic thought that is upsetting and weird, but they usually dismiss.

The other thing we know is the more we try and make the thoughts go away, the more intense they become.  So for example, those of us who remember radio/stereo systems with dial volume knobs, it's like the knob was installed the wrong way around, so when we think we're turning the volume down, we end up turning it up louder.

So in therapy, and it's not easy to do, what a good CBT therapist will endeavor to help you do is not fight the thought, but the exact opposite, encourage the thoughts. As we address what the thoughts mean and how we interpret them in therapy, we are then able to face the thoughts. And overcoming any aspect of OCD at some stage involves facing the thing we fear, in this case the thoughts.

In time we can have the thoughts and because they no longer scare us or bother us, there is no anxiety and we dismiss them without even realising we are doing it, and when we do that the frequency of them dissipates too.

I hope some of that can make sense and help

[Ashley]

Love that username by the way

[Autumn Rain]

5 hours ago, Ashley said:

Love that username by the way

 

5 hours ago, Ashley said:

This is a good question, and the one most people with OCD will perhaps ask at the start of the problem.  It's also the natural question to ask, because it makes sense doesn't it, I have a problem (in this case horrible thoughts) and I want the problem to go away. It's a logical question to ask.

What we have learned with OCD is two things.   One of which is what we know with OCD is that the thoughts themselves are rarely the problem, but in fact how we deal with the thoughts.  For example, people without OCD have the odd graphic thought that is upsetting and weird, but they usually dismiss.

The other thing we know is the more we try and make the thoughts go away, the more intense they become.  So for example, those of us who remember radio/stereo systems with dial volume knobs, it's like the knob was installed the wrong way around, so when we think we're turning the volume down, we end up turning it up louder.

So in therapy, and it's not easy to do, what a good CBT therapist will endeavor to help you do is not fight the thought, but the exact opposite, encourage the thoughts. As we address what the thoughts mean and how we interpret them in therapy, we are then able to face the thoughts. And overcoming any aspect of OCD at some stage involves facing the thing we fear, in this case the thoughts.

In time we can have the thoughts and because they no longer scare us or bother us, there is no anxiety and we dismiss them without even realising we are doing it, and when we do that the frequency of them dissipates too.

I hope some of that can make sense and help

Thank you, on both counts.