Are You the Thinker or the Thought?

People with OCD often struggle with unwanted thoughts which produce uncomfortable feelings. If you have this problem, stop and think about this – where do these thoughts come from? Do they come from an outside source, or are you generating them? Are you the thinker or the thought?

Too often we with OCD take these thoughts at face value and believe them unconditionally. That is because we have trained ourselves to do this subconsciously. I believe that our brains create patterns which trigger certain thoughts automatically. An example of this is once I bought a new necklace. I put it on and 5 minutes later the phone rang and I heard bad news. From then on every time I attempted to wear the necklace I believed that something bad would happen. It was such a strong thought that I couldn’t wear that necklace anymore. Now I know my own mind created that pattern, but back then the fear was too strong. Just realizing this may bring comfort and help you to understand the nature of OCD.