I'm confused about what my therapist meant by saying this

[canigetawitness]

I was sitting and got the random intrusive thought "Go smear soap all over your TV and yourself." It was a thought. It's my understanding that we aren't supposed to do anything with intrusive thoughts.

My therapist, who works with OCD, said "In the grand scheme of things, it wouldn't matter whether you smeared soap all over your TV or yourself."

I don't understand what they meant by that. I thought the whole point was to allow the random, weird, intrusive thought to be there without doing compulsions. I'm not sure what the purpose of digging into the content is. With OCD out of the picture, it'd still bother me, as Aaron, to smear soap everywhere. Actually leaving a lot of soap on a screen would damage it.

Basically why did my therapist say "In the grand scheme of things."? It's causing me a lot of distress and throwing me off in what I'm supposed to be doing & trying to do therapy wise.

I reached out to my therapist to let her know this was bothering me. I said this:

"I've been struggling with something that's come up since we met this morning. It's similar to the noise that's already in my head, but it's taken a slightly new twist. When we talked about how it wouldn't matter in the grand scheme of things if there was soap smeared on the TV or myself, my mind quickly started thoughts up like "Well see, if it's not that important, expose yourself to it. Smear soap across your TV and on your body, leave it until you habituate." I've been trying to dismiss this thought as another worry trick. However, I get particularly stuck because smearing soap across my TV would bother me aside from OCD, and I get anxious about what that means about myself."

And she responded with this:

"Good questions. It does sound to me like these are still the same types of thought traps we discussed earlier today, so while I know it is difficult to do- my recommendation would be to not engage/participate in the "what should I do about this thought/urge" line of thinking at all.

Instead, any time that comes up for you, use it as your cue to get out of your head and instead work on trying to be more present in the here/now. Keep working on getting out of the house, walking, seeing your friend, and doing things that are meaningful that you enjoy. Each time your mind wanders back to the unhelpful thoughts, bring your attention back to your surroundings, your 5 senses, or whatever you are doing in the moment.

In other words, drop the rope and find something else to do."

Do you think her reply means she didn't actually want me to smear my TV in soap when she said "in the grand scheme of things it wouldn't matter"?

[sligoguy]

Hi there ,I can tell you are getting stuck on this ,so I'll try and help you out ,,okey you had this intrusive thought about smearing soap etc,1st of all you don't want to put soap on the telly it was just a thought that came from nowhere,,just a fleeting thought it mean nothing ,just a thought out of the blue with no meaning ,no importance or substance to it ,she does not want you to do anything about the thought ,she just want s you to ignore it and forget it and get on with your day ,,,,and you also want to forget it and not do it and get on with you day ,,,,,so does that answer your question? I hope it does ,so do what you have been told and that is accept we all have meaningless thoughts that pop into our heads for no reason and that's the truth for ever human being on the planet ,,you do not have to answer or Annalise every thought ,image or urge that randomly comes bye ,so distract your self from the thought that your getting stuck on and do something constructive and interesting instead ,accept you have a condition that is a form of anxiety ,that makes you worry about stuff ,it's called ocd ,so to finish Forget the intrusive thought and replace it with something else anything that gets you in stuck , that is how the treatment works ,trust your therapist and your self ,lose the fear break the habit ,cycle ,and get back to enjoying you life

[canigetawitness in reply to sligoguy]

Hi, thank you for this. I'm trying to let it go as just a thought. I get stuck because what is the purpose of her even mentioning "in the grand scheme of things it wouldn't matter". Like no, it wouldn't be the end of the world, but I also don't want to smear soap all over my TV. This is throwing me off. Of course smearing soap on TV would bother me. I'll keep trying to ignore it. I appreciate your support. 🙂

[Hidden]

Ocd is the doubting and "what if?" Disease. Obsessing about what your therapist might have meant in a comment she may have tossed off without a lot of thought is a hallmark of ocd. Stop asking people including her what she may have meant. That's a ritual called "polling." Instead, expose yourself to the anxiety of the uncertainty and tell yourself, "For the rest of my life I will NEVER know what Dr. So and so meant when she said 'in the grand scheme of things.' If I live to be a thousand, I will just never know. It will always be a mystery." Do this as often as you need to. It will help. Good luck. I have been there many times! Hugs from the Bay Area 😊