#ocd posting

posts like these can trigger people with OCD, who might then spiral about how if they don’t reblog this, they must hate that minority. and they must be bigoted and terrible. so they’ll probably reblog out of guilt and obligation.

but here’s the thing. posts like that are meaningless, performative, and shallow. the people who make them are literally just doing the easiest possible form of ‘allyship’ in order to feel all high and mighty and holier than thou, and feeling like they’re morally above people who don’t reblog it. it’s literally meaningless, performative manipulation disguised as ‘activism’.

if you don’t reblog a post like that, it doesn’t make you a bad person. it doesn’t mean you hate that minority. posts like that aren’t real activism.

in fact i’d say that they’re the opposite of activism. people who make those posts are literally guilt tripping and taking advantage of an already mentally/emotionally vulnerable group of people, (people with OCD) and it’s ableist as fuck. reblogging a post that says ‘REBLOG OR ELSE YOU THINK MINORITIES DESERVE DEATH’ means NOTHING.

intrusive thoughts are an intrusion on your everyday thoughts. the point of them being intrusive is that they cause significant psychological stress when they are present. an intrusive thought affects behavior to a significant degree, and for a lot of people, many compulsions stem from either trying to prove to yourself or other people that you will not do the action envisioned in the intrusive thought (i.e: having intrusive thoughts about children, so you go out of your way to not interact with or even engage with anything involving children), or trying to “prevent” the envisioned scenario in the intrusive thought. (i.e: having an intrusive thought involving a car accident, so you avoid cars whenever possible.)

i see this a lot in defense of jax, especially the jax and gangle scene, where people say that the scenes pomni witness are “intrusive thoughts” and are therefore not representative of jax’s real ideas and beliefs. but this isn’t true, because jax does act on them. they may not be the envisioned scenarios 1:1, but these are things we can reasonably assume she would do. sexually tormenting gangle is something she does. making fun of zooble’s grief is something she does. being willing to assault pomni is something she does. having misogynistic tendencies and thoughts, even directed at other people more than herself, is something she does.

intrusive thoughts don’t do this to someone. the idea of doing or saying these things causes significant distress — and that’s what makes it intrusive.

SHUT UP!! NO I DONT!!!!!! STOP!!!!! SHUT THE FUCK UP!! NO ONE ASKED! YOURE GOING TO FUCK WITH PEOPLE WHO ARE PARANOID OR WHO HAVE OCD OR WHO JUST FEEL BAD! STOP! JUST! SHUT! UP!

Even if you don't have moral OCD I highly recommend giving this a read, especially if you participate in or frequent fandom spaces, it was seriously eye-opening for me.

Some of my favorite "Holy shit" parts:

The internet has evolved into a space that fuels compulsions, rewards black-and-white thinking, and reinforces a need for certainty and moral perfectionism, all things that OCD thrives on.

And-

You feel anxious → open a search tab. You have a thought you hate → post in a forum. You feel guilt → reread texts, check if someone’s mad. You fear being bad → confess online, ask for reassurance, scroll for proof you’re "okay."

We need to have and give more space for "moral shades of grey" and stop with black and white "pure good or irredeemably evil" thinking, especially with the media we consume and how we interact with that media and other people concerning that media.

Pure OCD isn’t obsession without compulsion — it’s obsession with invisible compulsions: mental checking, reassurance seeking, thought suppression, and analyzing the meaning of intrusive thoughts.

The themes vary — harm, SO-OCD, scrupulosity, existential dread — but the cycle is the same:

Intrusive thought hits

Mental rituals kick in (often instantly)

Temporary relief

More anxiety

Repeat

That’s the trap. The only way out? Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) — even when the compulsions are all mental.

💡 What ERP Looks Like for Pure O

Writing and re-reading scary thoughts on purpose

Sitting with uncertainty ("Maybe I'm a bad person. Maybe I’ll never know.")

Blocking mental reviewing, confessing, or reassurance-seeking

Letting anxiety rise, peak, and fall — without fixing it

ERP isn't about feeling better right away — it's about retraining the brain to see the thoughts as irrelevant noise. And it works.

📘 One Workbook That Actually Gets Pure O

If doing ERP alone sounds overwhelming, this helped tremendously:

👉 The Pure O OCD Workbook

It’s written by clinicians, but practical and easy to follow. Some highlights:

Breakdown of Pure OCD themes (harm, sexual, religious, etc.)

Worksheets to build a personal ERP plan

Imaginal exposure scripts tailored to intrusive thoughts

Strategies to interrupt mental rituals

Relapse prevention and tracking tools

It teaches how to face the fear without giving in to compulsions — step by step.

⚠️ What Keeps OCD Going (and ERP Stops)

Rumination (“Why am I thinking this?”)

Reassurance-seeking (Googling, confessing, analyzing)

Avoidance (of people, triggers, media)

Treating the thought like it’s meaningful

Needing certainty before moving on

The more the mind tries to “figure it out,” the tighter the OCD grip. ERP breaks that cycle — and the brain learns that uncertainty is safe.

✅ Recovery Is Possible

Pure OCD can feel isolating and exhausting. But with consistent ERP — even without a therapist — things can change.

The thoughts may still come, but they lose power. The anxiety fades faster. The freedom grows.

It takes work, but it’s worth it.

👉 Here’s the workbook that helped make it doable, one day at a time.