I’ve seen tons of people on here make the very ill-informed claim that certain intrusive thoughts make you dangerous. The thoughts in question are typically those associated with OCD. So here’s a thread about those thoughts, by someone who actually knows about (and has) OCD

People with OCD get ego dystonic intrusive thoughts. Ego dystonic intrusive thoughts are thoughts that don’t align with a persons character, value, or true intentions. In other words, we people with OCD get intrusive worries about doing things we’d never actually do.

Tw// violence, harm OCD
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For example, someone with harm OCD (a subtype of OCD obsessions) might have intrusive worries about stabbing their loved ones on impulse, and those worries might be accompanied by vivid images of actually stabbing people.

But people who have harm obsessions are petrified their thoughts. They’d never actually harm anyone. The reason that these thoughts terrify them so much that they can’t shake them is BECAUSE they’re so scared of them and BECAUSE they’d never actually act on them.

In other words, OCD makes you doubt the things you hold most certain. And “disturbing” OCD intrusive thoughts aren’t just thoughts of doing disturbing things, they’re worries about doing those things.

People tend to be like “oh, she has thoughts about doing bad things” but it’s more than that... it’s the debilitating fear of doing bad things. Having severe OCD is living in constant fear of your worst fears coming true.

So it doesn’t make any sense when people say things like “I wouldn’t be friends with someone who has OCD if they had ‘bad’ intrusive thoughts” because our thoughts DON’T make us dangerous. People with OCD are actually the least likely to do the things they’re scared of doing.

Not everyone with OCD has the “disturbing” intrusive thoughts that generate all this discourse, and that doesn’t make their suffering any less real or difficult. But it’s important to address the “disturbing intrusive thoughts” misinformation because it’s so prominent online.

And that stigma and misinformation is incredibly dangerous because it discourages people with OCD from seeking help. When you’re scared of being “dangerous” and “deranged” and losing friends because of your symptoms, it’s so so hard to be honest about what’s going on.

I would really appreciate it if y’all took the time to retweet this and spread the word. I see way too much misinformation about intrusive thoughts on here.