So there are OCD thoughts and then there is that terrible anxious "feeling" that accompanies them. So I think it is that "feeling" more than anything that separates the OCDr from the non-OCDr. I have talked to my husband about certain of my religious obsessional thoughts that have "terrified" me. He says he can think of the same things I can, but he doesn't react like me. He said 'I can think of that too, but in a split second he can disregard it b/c it doesn't have anything to do with what he believes. But it is so hard for me to just disregard my thoughts. The only way I can do it is through the exposure therapy until my brain becomes "used" to it and I start reacting more "normally" to the thought. So I KNOW I have a disorder that my husband doesn't have. Its the anxiety that makes me different, not necessarily the thoughts. Its the anxiety that fuels all of the obsessional thought patterns of trying to avoid, cancel, get rid of or undo etc. Its the anxiety that doesn't let me and everyone else with OCD just LET IT BE THERE. The anxiety makes it so hard to just sit there and let the thought go without trying to do something with it. Its mostly about the anxiety and interpretation of the thoughts rather than the thoughts in and of themselves. Thanks for listening. I know most of you understand this, but it helps me to write and remind myself that my disorder is anxiety driven, hence that "feeling" that is so hard to deal with when OCD spikes come. It obviously is a false "feeling" but feels real nonetheless. It is so difficult to deal with your brain constantly sending out "false signals" to your thoughts so back to exposure I have to go.
Boxers1
Boxers1
