Do my intrusive thoughts mean I am a bad person?

Hello and welcome to my latest blog post about intrusive thoughts. "Do my intrusive thoughts mean I am a bad person?" is one of the most common questions I am asked when I first talk to a new client. My clients are genuinely distressed and upset as their thoughts often are in direct opposition to who they are as a person and what is important to them.

My clients fall into the category of being horrified and upset by their thoughts. If you were happy with them and how they make you feel, you would not be reading this article, would you?

A common example is that a client may feel that being kind, respectful of others and thoughtful are some of their important values as a person. And then they have thoughts popping into their head that they feel they cannot control about hurting others in some way, of saying bad things to someone and so on.

The good news about this is that we all have odd, intrusive thoughts. Thoughts that just don't make sense to us. I have them as well! People who do not have OCD tend to either not really notice these thoughts and they don't pay any attention to them. People without OCD don't attach any meaning to the thoughts. From my own experience of these thoughts, firstly I can't remember them, they come and they go and I can't think of one to write here as an example!

This means if you are experiencing distress in response to your thoughts, there is nothing wrong with you! You are processing these thoughts in a different way and attaching a meaning to them that is scary. In therapy we will explore the meaning your thoughts have to you and help you to let them come and go without that horrible response you are experiencing right now.

The other piece of good news is that not all intrusive thoughts are "bad". Human creativity and good ideas all come from intrusive thoughts. Have you ever had a problem that you didn't know how to fix? Then suddenly you know what to do? That was a helpful intrusive thought. Artists, scientists, project managers, actually all of us have those lightbulb moments that we call great ideas. Great ideas are intrusive thoughts.

I think I can say that all of my new clients do not believe they could process their distressing intrusive thoughts quietly and calmly. Are you ready to take a leap of faith?

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