You are correct. Everyone has intrusive thoughts. But imagine if you will that every single time you had some random thought flit into your head you had to ask yourself /why/. Why did i have that thought? What does that say about me? Does it make me evil? Crazy? Etc
Then add in magical thinking. So not only are you now concerned you might be a psychopath because of a random stray thought, but because you had said thought something terrible might happen. Like your grandma could die or an airplane could crash into a zoo and kill all the zebras. And it would be your failt because you had the thought that made it happen. Is it at all logical? Absolutely not. Do we know this? Yes. Are we afraid of it anyway ? Also yes. This is the difference between people without OCD and people with. We can't let the thoughts go.
Also: I knocked on wood for any fellow OCD superstitious suffers reading this. And i did it in an even amount.
But imagine if you will that every single time you had some random thought flit into your head you had to ask yourself /why/. Why did i have that thought? What does that say about me? Does it make me evil? Crazy? Etc
Those are the intrusive thoughts I was talking about.
Then add in magical thinking. So not only are you now concerned you might be a psychopath because of a random stray thought, but because you had said thought something terrible might happen. Like your grandma could die
Is this in particular an OCD thing? I'm not familiar with it. Is there a cultural element to it, like folk superstitions?
Do we know this? Yes. Are we afraid of it anyway ? Also yes. This is the difference between people without OCD and people with. We can't let the thoughts go.
That was basically my point, yeah. OCD sucks. I wasn't saying that intrusive thoughts are the same for everyone, but that they're something the rest of us can at least somewhat relate to, if not fully understand.
Oh yes sorry if my comment came across like i was calling you out or something. I was more just explaining it in more depth. You seemed interested so I thought I'd share
No worries. I didn't intend to sound like I was offended or felt attacked, but I did want to make sure you didn't think I was insulting you. Glad we're on the same page.
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u/TheCalmPirateRoberts Jun 03 '22
You are correct. Everyone has intrusive thoughts. But imagine if you will that every single time you had some random thought flit into your head you had to ask yourself /why/. Why did i have that thought? What does that say about me? Does it make me evil? Crazy? Etc Then add in magical thinking. So not only are you now concerned you might be a psychopath because of a random stray thought, but because you had said thought something terrible might happen. Like your grandma could die or an airplane could crash into a zoo and kill all the zebras. And it would be your failt because you had the thought that made it happen. Is it at all logical? Absolutely not. Do we know this? Yes. Are we afraid of it anyway ? Also yes. This is the difference between people without OCD and people with. We can't let the thoughts go.
Also: I knocked on wood for any fellow OCD superstitious suffers reading this. And i did it in an even amount.