i have ocd im worried i might touch a child or worse

Im diagnosed with pocd intrusive thoughts if i think something bad will happen is it still ocd.I haven't been getting out for a long time now i hear people outside talking about me and calling me names everyday.Now im worried i might touch a child or worse if i see one is this still ocd.I always avoid children and even watching them on tv can be very difficult.

Hello, and welcome!

Thinking bad things will happen, is what we do best!

Yes, of course it could be the OCD talking- isn't that the point of it? We worry something bad will happen, or that we will do something bad.

I'm more concerned about all the talking and calling you names- is this something you can capture on a recording device? Not for our benefit- you would not be allowed to share it, here. But I'm wondering if OCD is all that is going on. We are, after all, a very paranoid bunch, and I myself have... gotten very close to thinking.. that things are, when they are not. Are these strangers? People that you know? What kinds of things do they say?

I usually avoid watching children on tv because I feel too uncomfortable.Then one day a young child was on the tv while I was with someone else.And I was thinking I liked it can this still be ocd.

I've told a psychiatrist and my care coordinator now and I'm worried it's not ocd.

I hear people saying paedophile and pervert and saying the floor I'm on.I hear it everyday I dont know these people it's just people around the estate.I haven't been acting right either i cant look over my balcony to long because there's a kids football pitch there.If i see children i either stare or look away fast.and theres a kids school outside the windows where my lifts are and i cant look at the school for to long and again i look away fast if i do.And I've heard my neagbors at there door seeing this.

I dont have anything to record what people are saying.

Well if you are acting obviously odd, then people might talk...

Is there anyone you can ask about what people are saying? They may not even be talking about you, but if you act strange around kids because of this fear, I could see it becoming this- not a self-fulfilling prophecy, but if you act as if you are something, people will think you are, even when you're not. OCD is really hard for Normies to understand.

theone5800 wrote:I usually avoid watching children on tv because I feel too uncomfortable.Then one day a young child was on the tv while I was with someone else.And I was thinking I liked it can this still be ocd.

I've told a psychiatrist and my care coordinator now and I'm worried it's not ocd.

Do they say it's OCD?

They said it's an intrusive thought they asked me what I thought it was and I said peadophile.i just would like to hear what others think.i used to understand it was ocd it's just really bad and hard to cope with now.

Well, I used to read a bit (and post some) in Paraphilias, before PF closed it, and the emotional tone in there, was not like what I see in OCD from the vast majority of POCD worriers, yourself included. It's very hard to put into words, mostly because pwOCD are very clever at twisting my words to say something else- when you stop and think about it, twisting things is something we're very good at, since OCD constantly seeks to justify our fears- but... it's like, I'm Bi. Which causes a lot of angst, but there's something down deep inside that distinguishes fretting over something you are, and part of you doesn't want to stop being, from fears over something you're not. Only you know whether you truly desire children, and if you would, in some world where that wasn't considered bad.

For me, it falls back on, when it comes to intrusive thoughts that center around behaviour (and not things like did I accidentally run over someone, or do I have a disease), we have to make our minds up that we're not that obsessive fear, or going to do that terrible thing- deciding to worry about it, only when we find ourselves having done it. That worked wonders with my harm OCD, for decades I have had intrusive thoughts of harming and killing- but it wasn't until I made the decision that first off, I'm not going to kill a pet or loved one, and second, I decide not to give a $#%^ if I might do something; I'll worry about it, when I've done it, not before... that I started to gain any control over the anxiety that I allowed it to force upon me, and the compulsions I would do to prevent me from doing anything horrible.

Not to say I don't still struggle with intrusive harm thoughts, but I can usually smack them down and go about my day.

I used to struggle with my sexuality, even though I wouldn't call it HOCD- but once I looked at my thought/fantasy/porn/3D history, and said well okay I do this, I think that, I get the hots for this, I want to live like that... okay, so I picked something- Bi- and nailed that down, and stopped all this obsessional fretting that I would do over am I gay am I straight no I'm gay no I'm straight...

It sounds flippant to say that a person has to make their mind up that they're not Trans, or a Pedo, or Gay... but I remain convinced, that's exactly what folks here eventually have to do. OCD can't be reasoned with, reassurance based on evidence is like cotton candy- it tastes good, but it melts away and leaves you with nothing. So... I out stubborn my sexual fears. I out stubborn my harm thoughts. I choose a side, and stick with it, and throw it back at my OCD when it throws crap at me. And it seems to help.

Now, fear of accidental harm, fear of.. oh, diseases... things that are out of my control, I haven't scratched the surface. But... things where my actions obviously contradict my fears, that's different.

The thing OCD will beat me over the head with, if I let it- and I've had pedophile fears, too, if not full POCD- is the what ifs- the fear of loss of control: I COULD kill a loved one. I COULD touch a child sexually. As if I'm a marionette and an outside force is going to 'make' me. Well, if I was going to do those things, if I really wanted to do those things, if they were really a part of my core being, and not ego-dystonic intrusive thoughts, I've had many decades to do them. Haven't.... so I tell those fears to go take a hike, I'll worry about it, when I've done it, not before, because at no point have I done those things.

It takes time- it took a lot of practice, with my harm thoughts- but the more I smacked them down with that attitude, the less power they hold over me, the fewer times they come by to bother me, and the quicker I am able to quell the fears. The first times are the hardest.

I forgot to add, you need to trust your psych and care coordinator- if they thought you were really a pedo, I'm sure they'd be taking steps to help you to not lapse into criminal behaviour. In fact, I'd say you're very fortunate, to have professionals who understand the OCD mind game and that we can holler we're all sorts of things and not take that as a OMG that person's a monster.

Can it still be ocd is this normal for pocd