Handling Violent Obsessions - Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) Message Board

fm5 · 06-04-2005, 11:48 AM

Thought I would post this here as I have noticed some here suffering with violent obsessions.

There is a particular case in Edna Foa's book "Stop Obsessing" about a guy who had these thoughts regarding his daughter. Get the book and read it!

What Edna Foa suggests is to actually picture the outcome of your actions in your mind. An example would be:

"I am now in the Courtroom. Everyone I know is staring at me horribly. My family thinks I am a dirtbag for doing this. I have alienated all of my family and friends forever. It is now in all of the newspapers and everyone knows about what I did. I will go to jail where I will be by all alone and where I will probably be abused. I will then go to hell where I will be tortured forever, etc."

Go into all the horrid details of what would happen to you - this is important. I only wrote a few sentences. You can write paragraphs! The more details you write the better. Write them down or record it. If you can't write them down, then sit and just ******** them. AND GO OVER AND OVER IT AGAIN AND AGAIN. You should spend at least 2-3 hours a night on this for weeks or even months until the obession fades away. If it comes back, do the exercises over again.

You will soon see how totally absurd these thoughts truly are and they will lose their sting on you. If they come back, just do the exercises again.

yfguitarist · 06-04-2005, 10:02 PM

What if you don't want the thoughts to go away? Those consequences are what's keeping me from acting out, although I know I wouldn't go to hell because I'm saved.

Sari05 · 06-06-2005, 08:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fm5

Thought I would post this here as I have noticed some here suffering with violent obsessions.

There is a particular case in Edna Foa's book "Stop Obsessing" about a guy who had these thoughts regarding his daughter. Get the book and read it!

What Edna Foa suggests is to actually picture the outcome of your actions in your mind. An example would be:

"I am now in the Courtroom. Everyone I know is staring at me horribly. My family thinks I am a dirtbag for doing this. I have alienated all of my family and friends forever. It is now in all of the newspapers and everyone knows about what I did. I will go to jail where I will be by all alone and where I will probably be abused. I will then go to hell where I will be tortured forever, etc."

Go into all the horrid details of what would happen to you - this is important. I only wrote a few sentences. You can write paragraphs! The more details you write the better. Write them down or record it. AND GO OVER AND OVER IT AGAIN AND AGAIN. You should spend at least 2-3 hours a night on this for weeks or even months until the obession fades away. If it comes back, do the exercises over again.

You will soon see how totally absurd these thoughts truly are and they will lose their sting on you. If they come back, just do the exercises again.

Thanks for posting that, I will have to check that book out. I have violent thoughts, I have thoughts of killing my family by cutting their throats and I have thoughts of killing myself by stabbing myself to death. Its really horrible,
it is the worst feeling.

dollface001 · 06-09-2005, 09:06 AM

That might work for some people but I can already picture the horrible outcomes and that is what frightens me. I am afraid that if i dwell too much on those horrible outcomes that they will become a reality.

dollface

vicki.j · 06-09-2005, 09:16 AM

I agree, it is the worst feeling & depending on the day, it's the outcome that keeps me from acting out or the fact I'm sure it's not really me wanting to do these things.

Nobody really understands because I can't bring myself to tell anyone (outside professional help). My family try to understand my anxiety/ocd but I'm always holding something back (my violent thoughts). How can you tell someone you have thoughts of hurting them. It's hard enough to deal with the fact that I have these thoughts.

I want the thoughts to go away more than anything in the world. For me, the attraction is the persons initial reaction should I act out. How surprised would they be. It's sad that I could have these thoughts but on the other hand they seem so natural & that's scary.

They started out years ago with "what would happen if I punched this person" & have escalated to "what would happen if I stabbed this person". I've often wondered whether the thoughts come from years of suppressing the real me to be someone people expect me to be. I've always been the responsible one, the reliable one, the "in control" one. Maybe my body/mind is finding another way to rebel.