Everyone Jokes About Having Intrusive Thoughts, But How Are They Different When You Have OCD?

The internet simply loves seizing on to a grabby phrase and over the last couple of years, I’ve seen more people throw around the idea of “intrusive thoughts”. But as someone with OCD, it can be frustrating when folks online don’t grasp how debilitating intrusive thoughts can be. Living with OCD means navigating some truly heinous intrusive thoughts on the daily. And yes, while everyone has intrusive thoughts, for people with OCD and PTSD the experience is slightly different. When you have OCD, your intrusive thoughts aren’t just stuff like giving yourself a spontaneous fringe. They can be violent, or sexual: in short, more fucked up than a bad hair cut. So to get a better understanding of intrusive thoughts, I enlisted the help of Dr David Berle, an Associate Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of Sydney.

First things first: what are intrusive thoughts?