I have suffered from intrusive thoughts on and off for years. My first experience came my sophomore year of college. I lived alone and had no life skills or friends. I had recently ended a complicated relationship and had a self harm problem. The intrusive thoughts were terrifying and went on until I was 23. After that I was free from them until I was 27. They came back when I had another major life change/relationship. This time it was worse. I am now 32 and my intrusive thoughts are currently quiet. For me, they come when I am under a tremendous amount of stress and feel out of control of my life. My OCD now manifests itself as various fixations.