Am I the monster my intrusive thoughts ke... - My OCD Community

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Am I the monster my intrusive thoughts keep making me think I am? Dark place again.

cee_arria11 profile image
10 Replies

(Venting) It’s a lot so here it goes. Here I am again. I’m feeling very vulnerable and scared right now. I feel defeated and so I came here to talk about it because I’m at my cross roads when it comes to dealing with this. I was asleep and I was awakened by so much anxiety worrying about it. My dreams are the only place this hasn’t reached me and hasn’t gotten to me. But when I wake up I’m back to the never ending hell in my head. So I’ve never been diagnosed with anything officially because honestly I’ve kept this to myself for sometime now but I can’t anymore. I have been dealing with really bad intrusive thoughts. I’ve had them as far as I can remember but they were never quite this bad where I’ve reached my breaking point. It’s heightened to a darker matter. I feel it says something about me as a person. Where I full on think I’m in the making of becoming a criminal for the thoughts I have. The first experience I had was like telling myself I loved something like god (when I was religious at the time) and I’d hear myself in my head echo back no you don’t, you hate god. It would fear me because at that time I was really god fearing and I thought I’d get in trouble for it. It worried me like crazy. I told my dad about it. I was about 10. He said it was okay, him telling me that reaffirmed everything will be okay. Afterward I felt fine for the most part. I mean I was a kid I got distracted by other things in my life. They got really bad once I was 21 and of course I didn’t know what any of it meant at this age either. Had a bad depression cycle and was constantly crying. So it feared me. I thought I was the only one with this issue so it made me feel like no one was around me even when I was in a room full of people. Literally thought this was a ‘me’ thing and no one will understand or be okay with this. I was thinking bad things about my friends, loved ones, any one I interact with and thought was a nice person and would never want to hurt them but my mind would take that and make me see bad things, that are inappropriate and often involving children. It hurt me and I would be out with my friends or at home with my mom and be sitting there concentrating to argue back with my thoughts. Begging myself to stop, I wasn’t even paying attention to what I was doing by that point. I felt frozen and time meant nothing because I was defeated. I was not having fun or even present for the things I was doing like cooking or shopping. It sucked the fun out of me. It was so bad that I finally decided to take my mom to the bathroom and cry to her that I’m terrible and I wish it all stopped as she consoles me. This was every other night. I felt ashamed of myself. My health as it is was already fragile and I was depressed plus my sleep schedule was bad. This is when I started saying things out loud to “help” it like “NO!” or “STOP” but only when no one was around to hear me. I still occasionally do when I had enough or I hit myself. To no avail. That’s when I came up with saying something every time I feel a negative thought coming on. Again, not knowing it was something others have that I will come to find out when I’m 24. So this made me feel more insane trying to say words that will “fight off” this thinking.. I was convinced it was working. And when it didn’t I started adding more things to it to help it combat my thoughts. Like making a stronger spell. Til I found the right thing to say. It involves me swallowing and saying certain words and having to say it without a instrusive thought disrupt me during it and if it didn’t work I tried again. For the most part I was okay but I was saying it every swallow I would make. I felt like a freak needing so say this per second to avoid a intrusive thought. Sometimes I didn’t even have to do it depending on certain days and how little my intrusive thoughts were. I was okay. I came to learn what this was when I was on yahoo answers looking for advice unrelated to this because I also had depression and anxiety and was struggling with the two. I just so happened to stumble upon a question and the answers in that question changed my life forever and I gained insight to what I was dealing with. The person mentions O.C.D the various types there are. Particularly intrusive thoughts. How people create rituals to help fight them off. Didn’t know there was a word for this or that this was a disorder. I was relieved but shortly afterward it didn’t mean much anymore and the thought of knowing that people had it didn’t help anymore. I was back to still fighting my thoughts and feeling wrong for them and if there’s truth to them. I didn’t know anyone in my personal life who had this so I still felt alone. Cut to me now. I’m friendless. Can’t speak to my sisters about it because it will probably freak them out and be wary of me around them or having me around my nieces who I adore. When I’m around them when I spend time with my family I don’t even have intrusive thoughts the whole time because I’m much too distracted and caught up in the moment until I’m back to being alone or in my room they will creep back up. But, New triggering intrusive thoughts have immerged. That have reached to a bad point. I haven’t bothered to do any rituals because the idea of it doing anything has worn off because my thoughts are so bad I cry about it and then think I’m unholy, a danger to those around me, and no one would want me near them. I often fear if I will become what I can’t control of my intrusive thinking. It hurts so bad. On bad days moving hurts because my soul is so distraught. I talk to zero people about this. I would hint bits and pieces to my sisters but nothing anyone takes a concern with. Or they think I have it in the bag because I do see my Doctor every 2 months or so. I was seeing an intern therapist but I was discouraged that once her 2 years were up of having to tell another person my issues and then them leaving again. I have requested a long term therapist. My Doctor agrees. Let’s see how well this goes with my appointment with a counselor and she will ultimately decide if I need to see one. This counselor was the one who referred me to see one in the first place so fingers crossed. I want to add that I never spoke up about this because like I said I didn’t have a longterm therapist I was seeing. I also didn’t want to say out loud that I had a problem and somehow the thought of it becoming worse that it’s now out there. I still want to make the effort to talk about this with a professional and see where it takes me. But for now I’m scared but like desensitized by all of this. I’m fearful of turning out the way my intrusive thoughts make me think about. That I’m the worst case of this. That it’s all me. I feel gross and nothing can convince me otherwise that I’m this perverted person and I should be jailed for it. It’s distorted the way I think of myself which let me tell you was always very little of myself but now worse. I haven’t been fighting them off like I used to because I give up. I have no drive. I have no fight in me and my mind has been eating away at me. Before I had hope but now, a deep depression as I get older, no friends, no purpose, no drive, or ambition. I don’t have a partner never had a real relationship with anyone where we have a title or anything like that. I’ve been recently questioning my sexuality and that’s another scary thing to process of whether I’m bi or gay. Which is terrifying me and something I didn’t want to come to terms with. And now that’s being used in my intrusive thoughts that I will harm girls. And I hate it. I can’t take it. Sorry for how long this is and any spelling errors or what have you. I’m scared of becoming everything I was never okay with and there’s no real hope for me. That I’m a lost cause and who can feel bad for me, I’ve struggled my whole life. I am the recipe of someone who’s failed themself and all those around them. If you care to reply thank you so much. I am in a very docile state of mind. I’ve always doubted myself didn’t always have a support system around me to instill positivity into me. So naturally I’m doubtful of my potential and at the age that I am 26 can I reverse the negative affects of this. I don’t do these kinds of things often where I discuss my issues and put it out there with great description. But I’ve done it before and in a way it helped when I had a bit of fight left in me.

I am so sorry for the autobiography. You can tell I don’t have any friends/family that I can discuss this with that the minute I’m given the chance to talk about something, it’s a lot.

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cee_arria11
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10 Replies

I am so sorry for the way that you feel. Long story short I have experienced every one of your symptoms and there is definitely a way out. I had intrusive thoughts about harming people whom I loved, about harming children, questioning my sexuality and developing tics and compulsions to ward off the thoughts. I wanted to stop myself before any of these thoughts became a reality and I considered suicide or self imprisonment. The reality is these are all textbook OCD symptoms and they do not reflect on you as a person AT ALL. The thoughts are meaningless and the likelihood of acting on them is 0%. There is a lot of information online and literature to support this. Also, any mental health care provider would not hold these thoughts against you. It is important to be transparent because a professional can help you. I went on antidepressants and they helped me immensely. I also did Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. I follow a great OCD specialist on instagram called "theshrinkwrap" who offers very good advice and there is a podcast called OCD stories that may give you some insight. Also, read other people's testimonials on this forum and you will see how common your symptoms are. Have no fear - you are not a monster, rather you are quite the opposite - a deeply empathetic, highly sensitive, self reflective soul.

I am so sorry that you are going through a very difficult time.

We are here to support and give you hope.

We are in this together.

Regarding OCD thoughts, you have to sit with the anxiety, and the feared consequences, of not giving into the urges to do compulsions.

The anxiety will be high in the beginning, but it will slowly get lower.

Accept the thoughts as they are.

We are not accepting the content of the thoughts.

The thoughts will lose power and will fade away.

Sometimes it might take a while, but eventually the OCD will switch to something else.

I hope this helps.

I hope you feel better.

Take Care.

mazkii profile image
mazkii

You did a good job expressing yourself. Hope you're journey goes well!!

ISTY profile image
ISTY

It’s good that you let it out. OCD is a cruel liar and tells you only the things that are opposite of who you are because they will hurt you. You are a good person and that’s why it hurts. ERP works with practice- don’t give the thoughts power they are not real and they are not coming from YOU. I wish you peace and sending love.

lavender9201 profile image
lavender9201

I feel so much empathy because I have been there too. I can tell you that I improved when I learned a lot more about this disorder and I practiced externalizing it (instead of internalizing that this means ME as a person is BAD). It’s a disease. It doesn’t make you better or worse than anyone else.

OCD thoughts don’t have any real effect on external reality. That’s another tough one: with OCD people often experience “thought/action fusion” meaning that we have a hard time distinguishing between having a thought or feeling and doing an action. Your actions are in your control, but your thoughts and feelings aren’t. Thinking upsetting things doesn’t mean you are doing upsetting things.

I hope you can speak very honestly to a dr/therapist and know you are not alone or bad — you are ill and you deserve help.

cee_arria11 profile image
cee_arria11

Thank you all for your kind words, it means a lot to me during this difficult time in my life. Still surviving through it. Much love to you all ❤️

Elienne profile image
Elienne

So glad you expressed yourself at length and received many understanding, supportive replies. Hope you will continue to share openly here as a safe place for you to express yourself honestly and be accepted for who you are by others who understand. I encourage you to follow through in getting professional counseling, regardless of whether long term or short term, because you need help in the present. Also, as another group member mentioned, sometimes prescription medications combined with psychotherapy can really help. Wishing you peace and continued courage.

Anonymous224455 profile image
Anonymous224455

I have this rn I feel like a monster and I’ve even told myself “omg what if I don’t like my girlfriend anymore” and getting worried about being a disgusting human I need help asap because I could never tell my family

Kiko002 profile image
Kiko002

As people have said above, there is a way out. Therapy helps, meds help too. I have this and I can guarantee it gets better! These are just the brain overthinking its own fears. Neither the intrusive thoughts, nor those feelings belong to you. There is a YouTube channel called Paidge Pradko that talks specifically about OCD and anxiety. You can check it out, but also, an irl therapist would be essential too.

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