OCD Intrusive Thoughts — How to Stop Fighting Them

At Royal River Psychiatric Care in Yarmouth, Maine, our skilled psychiatry team helps patients understand and manage distressing mental health symptoms. Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can be challenging for many people due to intrusive thoughts, and for over half of adults with the condition, OCD causes severe life impairment.

Intrusive thoughts can be particularly disturbing precisely because they feel so unlike you. You might experience a sudden thought or mental image involving violence, contamination, sex, religion, relationships, or something terrible happening to someone you love.

For many people, the first instinct is to battle the thought, forcing it into submission to try and reclaim mental peace. But with OCD, fighting intrusive thoughts can unintentionally keep the cycle going. Learning how to respond differently can help.

Recognize that intrusive thoughts don’t define you

An intrusive thought is an unwanted thought, image, doubt, or urge that enters your mind without your permission. Having one of these thoughts doesn't mean you agree with it, want it to happen, or plan to act on it.

In fact, intrusive thoughts often cause tremendous distress because they conflict with what matters to you.

Unwanted thoughts aren't unique to OCD. The difference often lies in the importance your brain assigns to the thought and what you feel compelled to do about it.

Understand that fighting intrusive thoughts can strengthen the OCD cycle

OCD can create a cycle that begins with an intrusive thought and the anxiety or discomfort it produces. You then try to make that discomfort go away by fighting the thought.

Some compulsions are easy to recognize, such as repeatedly checking a lock or washing your hands. Others happen entirely inside your head.

Fighting the thought might mean you repeatedly:

• Analyze why you had the thought
• Review your memories for evidence
• Tell yourself the thought isn't true
• Seek reassurance from someone else
• Research the subject online
• Replace a bad thought with a good one
• Avoid people, objects, or situations that trigger the thought

These strategies may bring temporary relief, but that relief can teach your brain that the intrusive thought really was important and required a big response. So, when another thought appears, the cycle starts anew.

That’s why stopping the fighting, not the thought, can be more effective.

How treatment can help you stop fighting intrusive thoughts

Changing your relationship with intrusive thoughts takes practice, particularly when OCD has trained you to react to them as threats. That’s why professional help is so crucial. 

Our Royal River Psychiatric Care team offers several approaches for OCD, with customized treatment for every patient. 

One common therapy approach is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which often includes a specialized approach called exposure and response prevention (ERP). During ERP, you gradually encounter thoughts or situations that trigger OCD while practicing resisting the compulsive response.

Over time, you can learn that you don't have to answer every doubt, eliminate every uncomfortable feeling, or achieve absolute certainty before moving forward.

The goal isn't to force yourself to like an intrusive thought or believe it. It's also not to make intrusive thoughts disappear completely. OCD treatment can help you become more comfortable, allowing a thought to exist without trying to resolve it. 

Many patients find that a combination approach with therapy and medication is highly effective for OCD management. 

Learn how to give intrusive thoughts less power

If intrusive thoughts and compulsions are making work, relationships, or life challenging in general, help is available. Call Royal River Psychiatric Care at 207-847-0023 or book an appointment online today. We offer in-person and telepsychiatry appointments.