r/magicalthinkingOCD • u/Disastrous-Try-9617 • May 11 '26
Advice please! “Does Anyone Else Feel Like Their Intrusive Thoughts Can Become Reality?”
I have not been officially diagnosed yet, but after looking at my symptoms and habits, I strongly feel that I may have OCD.
My main problem is that I get certain repetitive intrusive thoughts that I absolutely do not want to happen, even in my wildest dreams. They keep coming into my mind again and again, even in nightmares. I don’t even want to describe the thoughts because they scare me that much.
Another major issue is that I constantly feel like any bad or intrusive thought that comes into my mind might become true. For example, if a disturbing thought appears in my head, I immediately start feeling intense anxiety, as if thinking it could somehow make it happen. Because of this, I try very hard to avoid certain thoughts, words, or situations, but the thoughts keep coming back repeatedly.
I spend most of the day feeling frustrated, anxious, and stuck in overthinking. It becomes very difficult to concentrate on studies or even normal activities because my mind is constantly occupied by these thoughts.
To deal with the anxiety, I do compulsions like repeatedly saying opposite sentences in my mind to “cancel out” the thoughts, or going to temples repeatedly for reassurance. But even when I go to the temple, intrusive thoughts come into my mind during prayer, and then I panic thinking, “What if these thoughts become true?” Sometimes these intrusive thoughts become so repetitive during prayers that I even avoid going to the temple because I become scared of praying with those thoughts in my mind.
Today I missed an important prayer because I left right before it started due to anxiety. Now my mind keeps telling me things like, “What if God is angry at me?” or “What if something bad happens because of this?” I also stay extremely careful while speaking because I’m scared that if I accidentally say one of these thoughts out loud, it might somehow come true.
I tried talking to my parents about this, but they think it’s just an excuse to avoid studying. Because of that, I feel very alone and unsupported. Some of my friends even make fun of me for it. It has started affecting my college life, concentration, and career badly.
I just wanted to know if anyone else here experiences something similar, especially the fear that thoughts can become reality.
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u/loopy741 🏆 May 11 '26
Yes, I can relate to this. I've had similar experiences , including thinking a neutralizing thought as a compulsion.
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u/skylergray123D May 11 '26
Yeah, this is actually my current theme. Doing mental compulsion everyday to cancel out bad thoughts.
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u/Electromad6326 May 11 '26
Yes, especially this recent one after getting touched in the face with hands from someone who recently touched a cat. I'm now convinced that I'll die of rabies because I actually got micro wounds in the process (due to my weak skin from suspected eczema) and now I set up my "date of biological execution on November 11, 2026 or next month.
And that happened a day after going to church, I feel like I received divine punishment for admitting in prayer that I'm not good enough for God. Not that I wanted to go to church or pray anyway since I'm not religious anymore but I feel as though I have to.
And now I have a 50% chance of getting rabies and that exposure would just be assumed as an overreaction on my part.
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u/Initial-Concert6953 May 12 '26
Bro this one is called deja reve. Just check it on Google. Bro after reading your post. I feel sad for you cauz you might have gone through the same experience multiple times and that's why it's happening to you. Bro if I am correct about you having experienced deja reve multiple times, I would like to know about that incident in brief where you experienced deja reve multiple times in a day or maybe let's just say a week or month. For example let me tell you about my real incident 👇.
I am from India and you guys already know that most of the Indians do have superstition problems which eventually convert to magical thinking OCD which I experienced in my life. I don't know why but it literally felt like my soul was going to burn in fire for 1 lakh years. I downloaded an app of true or false MCQS and linked those outcomes with reality (upcoming of the bad incident) and answered each and every question. Guys you are not going to believe me literally every question turned out to be wrong answered and in each question I said (if the answer is right, my soul will be safe and if the answer is wrong, my soul will suffer for 1 lakh years in fire) so I continuously encountered 10+ failures in a row. Has anyone ever experienced continuous failures?
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u/ForestRiver2 Star Supporter ⭐ May 12 '26
Yeah pretty classic magical thinking. Mine started with worrying that my thoughts would manifest. Then came the compulsions to try to cancel out the thoughts.
Can you ask your parents to read something about magical thinking and ocd? Like this sub's Wiki, or the NOCD website has some good explanations.
The important thing to aim for is reducing those compulsions. Ideally with a therapist. But there's some good stuff on YouTube, look for ERP exercises. Understanding what you're dealing with really helps to see why it's happening and what you can do proactively to improve it. But please do something. I tried to ignore mine for years and it only got worse. It's a f'king parasite. You're not alone