Does anyone else have trouble with OCD and intuition? People say trust your gut or follow your intuition and it’s very hard with OCD.

[Playonwords]

OCD, Intuition

[MothFir]

Totally agree. I feel like I can't trust my intuition when my OCD themes are involved.

I have read that there is value in real intuition, because our 'gut feelings' are often comprised of cues and observations that we are not really conscious of. These all come together to give us valuable information about our surroundings, situations, etc. However I have a really hard time separating that from my OCD's ranting and raving.

This subject actually came up in my support group awhile back. A couple of people said they can tell a difference in feeling between their obsessions and their intuition. I'd like to get to that point, but I'm not there yet, at least where my OCD themes are involved.

[Playonwords in reply to MothFir]

Thank you so much for sharing!

[EverythingWillBeOK]

A therapist once said that it's important to distinguish between thoughts and feelings. And that OCD is always presented as thoughts, never feelings, even if they make you "feel" (anxiety, whatever). Whereas, in my opinion, intuition is a feeling. In my experience, if a feeling comes after a thought, then it's not intuition, it's OCD. For me, it's important whenever there is "feeling" to realize whether it comes after a random, usually OCD, thought.

[Eli_E in reply to EverythingWillBeOK]

thanks for sharing this - I will have to give this a try

[Playonwords in reply to EverythingWillBeOK]

It really helps to know I’m not the only one experiencing this!

[trailwalker53]

Yes.....100%! This is a daily problem for me. I ruminate and try to "figure things out" all day which I believe dulls my intuition to the point where I can't really trust myself. So I find myself bouncing ideas off of others or watching to see what others do in certain situations to try and figure out what I should do or what is "normal". It's a very difficult way to live but I know it's just another aspect of OCD. 😞

[Playonwords in reply to trailwalker53]

Thank you for helping me see this as part of OCD!

[Mili1720 in reply to trailwalker53]

I can relate to this so much!! I’ve had similar behaviour for a long time and it’s really getting to me, realizing I have no faith in my own capacity of taking simple decisions or being able to go within and ”listen to myself”. I feel pretty sad after realizing how bad it actually is, it’s like I put my faith in what other people would do instead of just taking my power back and try to feel what’s right for ME.

[Eli_E]

oh my goodness, yes! This is such a thing for me. One of my main themes is HOCD and my OCD loves to tell me that I am ignoring my intuition and thus will never be happy/successful. I haven't really found a solution to this. The one thing I try to remember is that if it's coming from fear based on thoughts its probably my OCD, but I really have a hard time with this because I used to read a lot of books / listen to podcasts that I actually have to do exposures with it now because hearing someone talk about following your intuition or whatever has become a trigger for me.

[Playonwords in reply to Eli_E]

Yes! Any quotes or stories about following your intuition are triggers for me as well but I hadn’t thought about doing exposures to them. Thanks for the idea!

[Emtctn]

Absolutely. I have ROCD and my thoughts tend towards thinking that my wife is in love with someone else. I get hits on the people in her life that I may think this about and have a hard time discerning if it's the OCD or if I'm really picking up on an intuitive feeling about the relationship between her and another person. The trickiest is that I have been right before and have validated my hunches, so that only feeds the flame and then confuses me even more because I "know" if I dig deeper, question harder and spend time trying to "figure it out" then I'll find the truth. But that's not always true....and then I ruin a good thing

[MissBowLady in reply to Emtctn]

Oof that sucks dude. I’m sorry you struggle with that.

[Playonwords in reply to Emtctn]

You’re right, we usually aren’t going to be able to figure things out once and for all. Thanks for sharing and best of luck with everything!

[penguins19i1]

Yes. I feel this way often. It is difficult learning to trust myself again.