[BNLsMOM]

I was diagnosed this week with what the doctor called a "strong obsessional quality to your thoughts." I have been reading about pure O ocd and some of the descriptions match what I go through daily.

I was wondering if anyone here has it and also has another disorder. It seems I won the lottery with OCD and bipolar.

[BNLsMOM]

Wow, no peeps? What's' an obsessed girl to do? I have been checking this site all day... LOL.

But seriously, if anyone has experienced this I would love to read about it.

[lily99]

I think I might have this. I went through a really awful time last year where I had terrible obsessions which lasted about 3 months. I won't specify the obsessions because they actually disgust me. I told my T about it, but she either doesn't know about it/didn't want to diagnose me/didn't think i had it.
in any case, it can be really bad. Mine got so bad that I considered how I might end my life if my fears about myself were confirmed. Thank god that passed, and not entirly sure how it did. But I'm still terrified it could come back.
Wish i could give more insight, but I'm as stuck as you are right now. Nice to meet someone who gets it though

take care

Hi there!

I too have been diagnosed with "Pure O" and Bipolar. For me, my obsessional thoughts are homicidal, and suicidal. Of course, I would never act on these thoughts but they can be very scary!

To overcome the Pure O, I was in therapy for quite a while, and the therapy was called ERP - Exposure Response Prevention. Basically, I forced myself to think of the horrible intrusive thoughts until they didn't scare me anymore. I haven't had trouble with intrusive thoughts for over a year, as a result. It's a very difficult illness to have, but you can overcome it with a lot of hard work.

I used to have pure O. But now it's turned to OCD. Still I don't always have compulsions to my obsessions, but most I do now.

Pure O is difficult to deal with because there is no relief. No compulsion. (not that compulsions help much anyway) It's constant wreaking on the anxiety and it's hard to catch because usually if I catch an obsession it's because I've done a compulsion for it. It's easier to catch actions then thoughts eh?

My pure O turned to OCD after I started working on trauma work and compulsions helped me feel in control more. And by in control it really led to out of control. So perhaps that was a bad way to turn!

Now if I have a repetitive thought I have a routine I must do to make sure it doesn't happen. Before the thoughts kept going and going and going and making me mad. Now I can't stop the routine that sometimes gets out of hand.

[BNLsMOM]

Thank you. I am glad I am not the only one! I'll have to talk to my T about ERP.