One common symptom of OCD is experiencing intrusive thoughts. Everyone is likely to experience some level of intrusive thoughts at some point in their lives, especially after a life-changing event such as having a baby or suffering a bereavement but for most they come and go without any problems. People without OCD are able to quickly and easily dismiss these thoughts as nonsensical and undeserving of time and attention. For sufferers of OCD, this is not so easy and their fear that intrusive thoughts mean something important can quickly get out of control and become all-consuming.
For example, many new mothers have unwelcome thoughts, such as standing at the top of the stairs and imagining dropping the baby. These thoughts are often simply your brain processing your worst fears, and the thought comes and goes. Or they may be due to stress, relationship problems or, in the case of new mothers, frustration with parenting!
While for most people, these unwelcome thoughts pop up and then are gone and forgotten, for sufferers of OCD, these thoughts get stuck. While it is true that Intrusive thoughts are a symptom of other mental health conditions such as anxiety and PTSD, what makes them different for OCD sufferers is how they react to them.
Most OCD sufferers will experience intrusive thoughts and will respond to them with the thought of “Why am I having these disgusting thoughts?”, “’What is wrong with me?”, and “How can I stop having these thoughts?”. It’s the ‘thoughts about the thoughts’ that cause the problems! Most people with these kinds of thoughts are only mildly bothered or may not give the thought any attention at all. But people with OCD will be extremely distressed and will resort to performing compulsive behaviors and ritualistic tasks in a bid to manage their thoughts.