Getting help -- how to tell therapist my intrusive thoughts?

[pansycake]

So, I am getting CBT from a local charity service. Just had a consultation with my local mental health nurse and she asked for some clarification on my intrusive thoughts. I couldn't tell her.

I am worried that it'll be the same with the therapist. They aren't an OCD specialist or anything, and I'm so so worried that I either won't be able to voice my intrusive thoughts, and that if I do, they won't understand/will think I'm depraved. I know the easy answer to this is 'they will understand' but the UK doesn't have the best track record in this department, and a lot of people are hostile to intrusive thoughts -- even qualified therapists.

Basically: does anyone have any advice on how to open up to a therapist about intrusive thoughts? Mine are of the very taboo kind, and verbalising them sounds impossible (which, to a degree, is a good thing as it means that they're truly ego dystonic, right? but I need to voice them to get help).

[Gemma@OCDUK]

Hi pansycake,

Perhaps you could just start with some of the things that you mentioned above, that you're having intrusive thoughts of the taboo kind and that you find it very difficult to speak about. That way they will understand and you won't feel like you need to say everything at once. When you are a little more confident then you can gradually open up, just start small.

Gemma

[FranticS]

I had my first session with a new therapist today, and I felt this too - felt very hard to be open about my thoughts and I was skirting around them and finding myself being very vague about the content. Its going to be a struggle to open up fully about them but I also don't want to go through session after session not being entirely open

[snowbear]

It is very scary opening up about your thoughts and feelings. Happily, the more you do it the easier it gets. And the more honest you are with your therapist the faster you make progress.

[Hdigtts]

I’ll definitely back up what snowbear had said. It is really difficult but it does get easier and it is the best way to get better. They will have heard it all before