Ashamed to go to the doctors

[wall12]

For the last 3 years I keep getting intrusive sexual thoughts when I’m masturbating or doing stuff with my boyfriend. They make me really disgusted because they’ll be about a family member. I hate continuously having these thoughts because I feel like a perv but I don’t want to have to go to the doctors and explain my thoughts because they might think I’m disgusting or tell people about it. What should I do?

[lavender9201]

This sounds really hard but it’s also very common for people with OCD. You could try to find the book “Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts” - it talks a lot about how the content isn’t important and doesn’t mean anything about you. It is true that an uniformed doctor/therapist may not understand as well, but if you can talk to someone who has experience with OCD they should be completely familiar with this and not shocked or judgmental. Good luck!

[MothFir]

You shouldn't hesitate to tell a doctor about it. Intrusive thoughts (sex, violence, sacrilege, etc) are actually very common for people with and without OCD - the difference is that people with OCD get stuck wondering and worrying about why they have these thoughts and people without OCD just think "Whoa - whatever!" and ignore them.

Not all primary care doctors are experts in mental health issues, so you might not want to go into detail about the content of your thoughts unless you feel comfortable that the doctor will understand. But you can still say that you're having some intrusive, unwanted thoughts that disturb you, and that you know from your research that they bother you because of OCD, and that you'd like to be referred to a therapist who knows how to treat OCD. No reputable doctor will tell anyone else what you tell him/her in confidence, and no therapist who has any knowledge of OCD will think you're disgusting. The fact that you don't want these thoughts makes it pretty clear that they are not voluntary and that you are not "a perv." Again, your situation is not uncommon among well-adjusted, "normal" people. The brain just generates weird and offensive stuff sometimes, and that doesn't reflect anything about the actual person.

You can also try self-help books, online therapy, etc., but if you can afford and have access to a therapist in person that would probably be the most helpful.

[Susiesweeney]

Please get help it is OCD, but make sure the person is an expert in OCD