magical thinking horrible thoughts

[scaredgirl86]

I have really bad magical thinking ocd which makes me think my thoughts cause things which is not true, right now i'm worried that my thoughts will cause two people who love each other to break up which is crazy but it's really bothering me i love their relationship too much and look up to it , any one have advice?

[MyNameIsTerry]

I guess the problem with this type of issue within Magical Thinking OCD is that you may not feel that the outcome of your thoughts would be immediate. If thats the case then ERP begins difficult with this because it won't prove to you that nothing happened.

However, perhaps you could change your focus to something else where you can try to disprove it? Something that would be immediate? This wouldn't work against the one concerned with their relationship but if you break some, it can help you to break the others.

Thats perhaps one for a therapist or someone who has had that same scenario.

For me, it was about harm coming to my parents. So, I would be performing touching rituals along with imagery in my head and if I didn't do it "just right" and the image wasn't "just right" then I would believe something "could" happen as a result.

I stopped my rituals bit by bit and nothing happened. Several years on and still nothing has happened.

Do you perform any rituals along with this? If so, then you would need to stop performing them or cut them down bit by bit until they start to lose their power over you and you gain more control.

ERP works with OCD to prove that if you don't perform your rituals, nothing happens. I also like to think of it in terms of nothing happening when you engaged in your rituals so its proven invalid either way.

Another way is to use the Cognitive Restructuring stuff which you will find on Davit's thread here:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=168527

This way you start challenging your thoughts with evidence to the contrary. This could be used along with removing other similiar obsessions/compulsions as mentioned above.

[scaredgirl86]

Does not listening to songs or watching movies in fear it will cause what my thoughts are telling me count as rituals? Thank you for the link, it may seem crazy that i care about others relationship but heir love gives me faith that real love is possible i hate thinking that my thoughts have power to ruin that ocd is crazy.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I don't think its crazy at all, I've had magical thinking for about 3+ years and stopped a lot of it. Its like you think you have superpowers...why can't it be flying instead!!!

No, if you mean "not watching incase you are triggered" then its avoidance. In these cases if you had ERP, it would be to exposure yourself to those triggers to show nothing bad comes of them. It does work but if your thinking is that it could happen later and not immediately then it might be more complicated but a therapist would know what to do.

If you look at my threads (I've not raised many) there is one which I think I posted on the Therapy board about ERP for therapists. Its a large book sized online guide for how therapists should deal with difficult situations and explains a lot about ERP. That might have some answers on how to use exposure if you thinking is less about immediate outcomes.

[scaredgirl86]

Thank you very much Terry, i will check that out I do feel like i have powers though like you said never for good things lol

[MyNameIsTerry]

Check out Steve Seay's articles as well. He's a clinical psychologist in the US and he seems to specialise in OCD and his website has information on it that the charities don't have or even forms of OCD that are less common.

He has written some excellent ones about intrusive thoughts and mental rituals.

[scaredgirl86]

i will thank you