When I was in middle school, I had terribly vivid visions and thoughts about my family and friends being killed, and that if I didn’t do a certain ritual, they’d die and it was all my fault. I told my first therapist about this and she promptly diagnosed me with OCD after some diagnostic testing.

I’ve done some digging online now that I’ve gone through Exposure and Response Prevention, and it seems to me that with OCD, people don’t believe that their obsessive thoughts are reflective of reality. They still feel the need to do their rituals though. I wasn’t like that. I believed wholeheartedly that my friends and family would die, that it would be my fault, that I’d even get charged with murder if I didn’t do my rituals. No one could convince me otherwise (at least until I did the ERP and I saw that none of that happened).

So, people of Reddit with OCD, did/do you recognize that your obsessions are irrational, or do you believe that they’re gonna happen? Am I a black sheep here? All of the people with OCD I’ve talked to recognize that their intrusive thoughts aren’t indicative of reality. So I’m a bit confused on whether that’s even the right diagnosis. I’m in the process of a series of psychiatric evaluations so I’m thinking I’ll bring it up to my doctor doing the testing.

Thanks!