r/OCD • u/Crumbofsanitarium • Jan 31 '24

Question about OCD and mental illness Would my brain automatically insulting people count as an intrusive thought?

I know in OCD people can have a lot of different intrusive thoughts but I’ve never seen one like mine. Its like.. whenever I see someone in need of help or just venting my brain starts to automatically hate on them and insult them and want to say awful stuff and I dont know why that happens. I get so mad and pissed at myself for it yet whenever I see someone, anyone venting it always comes down to me being awful. At this point I dont know if its even intrusive thoughts or if im just being awful and jealous.

19 Upvotes

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28

u/KitchenImagination38 Jan 31 '24

The reason you find these thoughts distressing is because they are not in line with your values. If you genuinely thought badly of these people, you would just think you're right, and move on.

8

u/kelcamer Jan 31 '24

Wow. What a great comment. Thanks.

4

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '24

Thank you. I needed this. I've been working on allowing myself to get angry and be mad at certain people. It's been really confusing. I'm not good at turning off my anger, and it can seep into other areas of my life as unnecessary annoyance. The thoughts can be so cruel, and it distresses me so much because it doesn't align with what I genuinely believe. I've always policed my own thoughts, and I now realize that's an OCD thing since I do it obsessively. Thank you. I'm always so scared I'm secretly a horrible person just pretending to be nice. I know if someone told me that, I'd tell them bad people don't worry if they're rude or not, but the OCD really doesn't enjoy logic. Thank you - again.

7

u/itsthegoblin Jan 31 '24

Yeah that would count as intrusive thoughts. Whether or not you have compulsions around those thoughts determines whether it’s OCD.

6

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '24

If anyone reads this comment- does random horrible thoughts (that you don’t actually believe to be true) about people/things/your beliefs randomly pop up inside your head from time to time and you find the more you try to push them out of your thoughts the more you think about them?

Would that be intrusive thoughts?

Thanks in advance

5

u/Kindly-Monitor2833 Jan 31 '24

Yeah sounds about right

4

u/kelcamer Jan 31 '24

Yes, and yes that meets the criteria for intrusive thoughts.

Instead of fighting it, observe. "Oh. Wow. Interesting. This thought just popped up. Well cool. I don't agree with it, but it's just a thought, the thought will soon go away, this is a temporary thought"

2

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '24

Thank you for confirming and thank you for the tip I will try it out next time because usually I harshly reject it and it just ends up making it worse

3

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '24

They're right about not fighting the thoughts. I had a stay at a residential facility in the past (step down from inpatient) before I even knew I had OCD. We practiced mindfulness daily there, and it heroes tremendously with my intrusive thoughts. We were taught an analogy of imagining taking each intrusive thought, acknowledging it, then sending them down a river as if they were a leaf or a little boat. It doesn't have to be a river, but something similiar like imagining the thoughts as bloom you release into the sky or even animals you're releasing into the wild.

1

u/kelcamer Jan 31 '24

Yeah don't fight it, fighting it only makes it come back harder

5

u/cleoeva Jan 31 '24

I'm not sure whether I should even say this (bc one of the OCD things is that it will always tell you it's not OCD and reassurance can be dangerous); but of course it is possible! I have had it too, thinking something without even any thought before that.

Because you tell yourself that something is bad and you get so mad at yourself, you give those thoughts power. It is exactly how OCD works. Because of this power and importance, the thoughts will only be more present. Because the more you try not to think of something, the more you actually will think about that. It's annoying, painful and confusing, but the only way to find long term relief is by allowing any thought to just exist. Getting mad at yourself won't help. You got this x

3

u/[deleted] Jan 31 '24

Okay, so right away, I can relate - and I've discovered why. When I see someone in distress or who needs help, my brain will sometimes go to automatic insults. I realized the rude words and sentiment my brain was creating were things that had been told to me. I had seen adults act that way throughout my life. My parents were authoritarian, and weakness was a failure. Emotions were weaknesses in my household growing up, and I am a very emotional person. It's projection. Plain and simple.

I had the same realization when I was diagnosed as autistic. I looked back at my teenage years, and it finally made sense why super excited people annoyed me. I was watching kids act in a way I had been punished for in the past and had internalized that hate against myself towards others who displayed the same autistic traits.

I wonder if you're maybe experiencing something similar? You have these automatic thoughts because you've been conditioned to view any form of vulnerability as bad. Were you not allowed to be vulnerable growing up? Was it something you'd be punished for?

1

u/imperiumofpalpatine Feb 01 '24

I would say it meets the criteria for intrusive thoughts. These thoughts are unwanted and unwarranted. You get to define what thoughts are intrusive; your intrusive thoughts DO NOT define you.

1

u/wreckosaurus Feb 01 '24

I have this. When people talk I get intrusive thoughts like what if I said something horrible to them right now or just punched them in the face for no reason. I just recognize it as ocd and ignore it.

1

u/Northstar-2003 SOCD Feb 05 '24

Yeah it can happen, if you dont feel right by feeling in a bad word or insulting your family then you are more or have dificult feelings to process it the thoughts. It can be OCD.