What triggered your PURE O?

[GbGb]

Hi everyone,

I'd like to know if anything triggered your intrusive thoughts? Or did they just come out of nowhere?

Do you feel reading forums like this triggered new thoughts/themes?

I have had severe ocd (rituals,etc) for more than half my life but now it's mainly intrusive thoughts which have made me feel just terrible. I've never felt so helpless in my life. It's awful.

[MyNameIsTerry]

It was Duloxetine that did it too me.

I had some traits since childhood but not anxiety. When my GAD started, these traits didn't get worse. When I relapsed about 4 years later (came off Citalopram 6 months before after being on it years, which was successful at 20mg for me) I found a few traits that had worsened but still not enough to be OCD. Within weeks of being on Duloxetine, I had become very obsessive and I had hundreds of compulsions per day as well as intrusive thoughts.

I spent years changing this as my GP was adamant it was my anxiety and I was naïve back then. I still have battles with obsession but I have beaten intrusive thoughts (twice as they made a come back at one point years on) and stopped the compulsions.

I felt totally hopeless too. I felt like my mind & body weren't my own as I couldn't control them, or so I thought. I thought I was cursed and would never get even a little bit better but I did. I got a lot better than those dark days and so I believe we all can because I know my thoughts back then and what I would say about my situation and it mirrors what others on here say. I have the benefit of looking back, you will too.

[Bonnibelle]

For me it was a violent family member. I'd always had anxiety to some degree but nothing that stopped me living my life. Then my brother attacked my husband then a year later chased after me and from then on I had an anxiety disorder, agoraphobia and intrusive thoughts. I was told anything traumatic can trigger intrusives, as they are a product of high anxiety.

[GbGb]

Thanks very much for your replies.

I feel with me my intrusive thoughts got a lot worse from reading online forums relating to ocd etc.

It makes me feel so awful..the thoughts make me sick. They're non stop. I guess having agoraphobia and not being able to do much doesn't help but still. I wonder how it's possible to have such horrible unwanted thoughts? And nothing I do makes them go away.

Do you guys get them here and there? Or are they quite frequent?

[MyNameIsTerry]

Mine were less frequent than Pure O sufferers because I was a mixed OCD sufferer and of the two, the compulsion side was fever pitch. So, my intrusive thoughts were not getting at me as much as the other side was. This perhaps gave me a head start?

If you've read about them, you will know they are "ego dystonic", the opposite of true character & beliefs. So, take some comfort from that. Despite the fact they are horrible, repulsive & scary, take comfort from the fact they oppose your real beliefs hence them being a problem for you. As you start to beat them, you will find it changes and you become less concerned by them, which doesn't mean you are starting to agree with them or like them, it just means you are starting to say "whatever". Eventually, that's a default response, automatic, and the thoughts just flash through without a reaction.

It's just trying to scare you. A negative reaction, like fear/anxiety/panic, is the feedback to it. The more you starve it of this, the more they stop coming as they become of no value to the subconscious. The feedback is expected as negative, it's part of the survival response, so positive/neutral takes longer to change it all since it's not really part of the chain. The fear response is powerful so it builds fears quicker than they can be removed so therapy can often seem like it's not working, but it can with time & effort.

[jadedreams]

Hi Gb, for me it was high health anxiety over a possible blood clot that started mine last year. Been a rough time with them, but better now than in the beginning. I used to get hundreds of them a day and I distinctly remember when I was able to watch a tv show for the first time and actually pay attention to it. I was so happy! I still get them on a daily basis, but now it is much less - instead of hundreds it is less than 10 a day. I still struggle with some and am working on that with a counselor.

[perry12]

My intrusive thoughts came as side effects from Sertraline. I successfully overcome GAD and was on Sertraline at a low dose for about 3 years, I came off Sertraline for about 5 months and then took them again. On the start up the second time round I was hit with the most intense anxiety and pure o thoughts that I believe traumatised me.

I am so angry that Sertraline did this but its happened now and we move on. First time round Sertraline was a life saver, you just never know how you are going to react!

[ohwell123]

i had the urge to carry out my pure O thoughts which were totally against the normal me, i actually had the urge to pick up a knife and stab a loved one..or kill myself if i was behind the wheel of a car all totally against my nature

to feel like my hands were being pushed to complete these tasks seems so stupid now but it wasnt at the time....

which confirms to me anxiety needs meds and is a chemical inbalance