Table of Contents
Does OCD make you think your thoughts are real?
For most of us, these thoughts seem “messed up” or funny, because they’re so out of place. But for someone with OCD, these disturbing thoughts might feel like real possibilities — even if that person knows their thoughts are probably irrational. For someone with OCD, the existence of a mere possibility around their fear, no matter how illogical, can cause intense anxiety and distress. Despite their own logic, OCD latches onto the slightest uncertainty surrounding their obsessions. When you have OCD, you may experience false memories that feel like real experiences. This may lead you to doubt your recollection of important events or your memory performance in general. This lack of confidence, in turn, may lead you to more false memories. People with False Memory OCD experience frequent doubts about things that have happened to them and may be convinced they’ve done something wrong despite no evidence of these memories being true (e.g., “Did I accidentally steal and don’t remember?”). The two most common diagnoses associated with intrusive thoughts are anxiety and Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD). They can also be a symptom of depression, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Bipolar Disorder, or Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Ignoring symptoms of OCD will not cause them to disappear, and they’re not going to just go away. That’s not the way OCD works. In fact, ignoring symptoms, telling yourself that you’re not really that bad and you can manage the disorder by trying self-help for OCD will only exacerbate the situation.
How to tell the difference between OCD thoughts and real thoughts?
If you have a negative thought and shrug it off without giving it much attention, you are unlikely to become obsessed with it. In this case, your thought process usually goes, Wow. That was one weird thought.” But people with OCD tend to take these thoughts very seriously. When do intrusive thoughts become a mental health issue? Intrusive thoughts on their own aren’t a mental health issue. But they can become a problem if they’re “sticky” and you can’t ignore them. Instead, you might judge them or take action to avoid or “disprove” the thoughts. If you’ve had a painful childhood experience, or suffered trauma, abuse or bullying, you might learn to use obsessions and compulsions to cope with anxiety. If your parents had similar anxieties and showed similar kinds of compulsive behaviour, you may have learned OCD behaviours as a coping technique. Essentially, no. A thought is just a thought, even when it causes distress. Intrusive thoughts are so-called for a reason: they stick with a person, and the harder a person fights them, the stronger they get.
Should you agree with OCD thoughts?
Always agree with all obsessive thoughts — never analyze or argue with them. If you slip and do a compulsion you can always mess it up and cancel it out. Remember that dealing with your symptoms is your responsibility alone. Don’t involve others. Many people with OCD experience extreme guilt. Certain symptoms can trigger this feeling, such as having sexual or violent thoughts or believing that you are responsible for causing harm to others. The most common trick is OCD trying to convince you that “this time it is not OCD.” It is important to educate patients how to spot the difference and it’s helpful to emphasize that OCD tends to feel like an emergency and needs to be attended to immediately. A standard treatment for OCD involves exposure and response prevention (ERP). This involves the patient confronting their worst fears while learning to not perform their compulsions. For example, it may include touching a toilet seat and not being allowed to wash your hands.
Why are OCD thoughts illogical?
OCD and irrational thoughts People with OCD and other mental illnesses are often prone to cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions are habitual thinking patterns that are incorrect or biased — often negatively. As a result, some of your thoughts might be irrational. Typical OCD Thoughts Constant worry about catching a deadly disease and/or contaminating others with your germs. Disturbing sexual and/or religious imagery that might include sexual assault or inappropriate sexual acts. Fears about contamination with environmental toxins (e.g. lead or radioactivity) Studies show that OCD patients have excess activity in frontal regions of the brain, including the orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which could explain their intrusive thoughts and high levels of anxiety, respectively. Written by. Unwanted thoughts are an extremely common symptom of anxiety disorders. Anxiety is the type of mental health disorder that specifically causes negative thinking, and the inability to control the thoughts that come into your head. For some people, anxiety itself can be caused by these thoughts. False memories can be a form of obsessive thinking. Someone experiencing false memory OCD may suffer from doubts about their ability to accurately recall events. They may wonder if they did something wrong, even when there’s no evidence of that being the case. We have now discovered that OCD in young people actually significantly alters both memory and learning ability. OCD, which affects 2-3% of people at some point during their life, involves ritualistic behaviour such as constantly checking on things, placing objects in a certain order or washing hands repeatedly.
How do I stop OCD thoughts?
Several types of psychotherapy can be used to help someone with OCD manage obsessive thoughts. The most common is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), specifically an approach known as exposure therapy. People with OCD are often treated using an approach called exposure and response prevention therapy (ERP). More specifically, the most effective treatments are a type of CBT called Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), which has the strongest evidence supporting its use in the treatment of OCD, and/or a class of medications called serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SRIs. One of the most promising developments for managing Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is with Neurofeedback. This is a method that does not require the use of medication or traditional training, but relies on measuring brain waves and training the brain to respond differently. Imaging, surgical, and lesion studies suggest that the prefrontal cortex (orbitofrontal and anterior cingulate cortexes), basal ganglia, and thalamus are involved in the pathogenesis of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The answer to that is yes. There are options you can practice at home to help fight against your OCD, and our team at Colorado Recovery Solutions wants to find the best fit for you and your mental health.