It's very ouchy to think about and see so much of this, but it does my heart good to see this much discussion about OCD and intrusive thoughts and to see pushback against the "your intrusive thoughts are who you are and therefore you're a bad person" bullshit that gets spread.

I have intrusive thoughts that are shocking, horrifying, and deeply distressing. They are not things I want to think about and are not things I would EVER DO or have even the slightest desire to. They're what my brain decides to torment me with BECAUSE I don't want them.

They are exactly that: intrusive. An unwelcome guest in your home, only instead of just eating all your Pringles, they chant the things that terrify and disturb you most on a loudspeaker until you start to feel like you'll never escape.

A song that gets stuck in your head, but instead of being an annoying few bars of a pop song, it's something that disgusts you playing on a loop and starting when you least expect it.

Imagine complaining about someone who breaks into your house and screams horrible things at you until you can't shake them from your brain and being told "holy shit, I can't believe you'd even THINK about those things, what a terrible person you are"

A lot of people don't care how the thoughts get there - only that you dared to have them, no matter how much you didn't want to.

We have got to stop blaming people for struggling to escape from things they never asked for and do not want.