Magical thinking question?

[Ljj44577]

I feel like a lot of my OCD has a lot to do with magical thinking. I have superstitions about numbers, events, and other things that I can't think of. I constantly need reassurance that the things that provoke my fears and anxiety are not real. I have to be reassured that my fears won't come true. For example, if I see the clock at a certain time, it'll cause me to be angry or worried.

Not too long ago, I created an account on a social anxiety forum. As soon as I started, I saw a number (that I keep associating with bad luck or something bad happening). It was the amount of notifications I had on a different site. It made me angry and worried.

So, my question is: Do these obsessions have any realistic chance of happening? What are your experiences with magical thinking?

[Clydesdale Epona]

As a person who has dealt with Magical thinking for many years now i can say with confidence the obsessions are not likely to happen x

[MyNameIsTerry]

Behavioural Experiments are used in treatment to prove you can't create in the physical world from your thoughts unless you choose to take action.

They don't come true but you can certainly apply enough bias to your thinking to make you assume things.

Look at posts like TomT who was doing that.

MT has been one of my problems and nothing ever came true. I could certainly look to coincide to try to prove to myself that something "might" though.

[GlassPinata]

I feel like a lot of my OCD has a lot to do with magical thinking. I have superstitions about numbers, events, and other things that I can't think of. I constantly need reassurance that the things that provoke my fears and anxiety are not real. I have to be reassured that my fears won't come true. For example, if I see the clock at a certain time, it'll cause me to be angry or worried.

Not too long ago, I created an account on a social anxiety forum. As soon as I started, I saw a number (that I keep associating with bad luck or something bad happening). It was the amount of notifications I had on a different site. It made me angry and worried.

So, my question is: Do these obsessions have any realistic chance of happening? What are your experiences with magical thinking?


I suffer mostly from anxiety.... maybe a tiny bit OCD.
I feel like bad things will happen if I don't do ____ (something totally unrelated, like pick up a penny off the ground, or wear my "lucky" shirt).
When bad things happen, I fear it's because I failed to protect myself by doing _______ (something totally unrelated), and I feel guilty.

I recently read some good advice on the internet. It's about anxiety, but I feel it addresses my OCD tendencies as well.
It was something like, "When you have a fear or a thought that something terrible is going to happen, acknowledge that it is a thought. It is not a message from God, or an omen from the universe. it is a bad thought. That does not mean it will come true. Just because you can imagine a terrible thing happening, does not mean that it will."

This has gone a long way toward helping me with my OCD behaviors. Because in the past, when I thought bad things were going to happen and then they didn't, I felt that I had narrowly averted them by doing XYZ (unrelated things). That reinforced the OCD behaviors.

Now I am practicing realizing that those bad things I thought were going to happen were never likely to happen. They didn't happen because they were UNLIKELY in the first place, not because I knocked on wood three times, or carried a lucky crystal in my pocket, or whatever.

I am practicing acknowledging my fears as thoughts: no more, no less. I've always had a vivid imagination, and yes, I am capable of imagining terrible things. I do not need to do anything to protect myself from the bad things I imagine, because they are merely thoughts, and thoughts can't hurt me in reality. They are not going to magically come true, just because I think them.

Anyway, that's where I am at this point; trying to recover from my "magical thinking".

[Ljj44577]

As a person who has dealt with Magical thinking for many years now i can say with confidence the obsessions are not likely to happen x

Thank you. I've also had obsessions that never came true. I still question myself based on my obsessions though. It is good to know that others have similar problems.

---------- Post added at 00:32 ---------- Previous post was at 00:32 ----------


Behavioural Experiments are used in treatment to prove you can't create in the physical world from your thoughts unless you choose to take action.

They don't come true but you can certainly apply enough bias to your thinking to make you assume things.

Look at posts like TomT who was doing that.

MT has been one of my problems and nothing ever came true. I could certainly look to coincide to try to prove to myself that something "might" though.

Thanks. I will look into that.

---------- Post added at 00:33 ---------- Previous post was at 00:32 ----------


I suffer mostly from anxiety.... maybe a tiny bit OCD.
I feel like bad things will happen if I don't do ____ (something totally unrelated, like pick up a penny off the ground, or wear my "lucky" shirt).
When bad things happen, I fear it's because I failed to protect myself by doing _______ (something totally unrelated), and I feel guilty.

I recently read some good advice on the internet. It's about anxiety, but I feel it addresses my OCD tendencies as well.
It was something like, "When you have a fear or a thought that something terrible is going to happen, acknowledge that it is a thought. It is not a message from God, or an omen from the universe. it is a bad thought. That does not mean it will come true. Just because you can imagine a terrible thing happening, does not mean that it will."

This has gone a long way toward helping me with my OCD behaviors. Because in the past, when I thought bad things were going to happen and then they didn't, I felt that I had narrowly averted them by doing XYZ (unrelated things). That reinforced the OCD behaviors.

Now I am practicing realizing that those bad things I thought were going to happen were never likely to happen. They didn't happen because they were UNLIKELY in the first place, not because I knocked on wood three times, or carried a lucky crystal in my pocket, or whatever.

I am practicing acknowledging my fears as thoughts: no more, no less. I've always had a vivid imagination, and yes, I am capable of imagining terrible things. I do not need to do anything to protect myself from the bad things I imagine, because they are merely thoughts, and thoughts can't hurt me in reality. They are not going to magically come true, just because I think them.

Anyway, that's where I am at this point; trying to recover from my "magical thinking".

Thanks.