13/03/2026
If you live with OCD, you will recognise this.
Something happens and you feel okay. Your senses tell you that everything is fine. But then OCD steps in with a different story.
"Yes, but what if you are wrong? What if you missed something? What if what you imagined is actually closer to the truth than what you experienced?"
It might show up as thoughts like:
"I drove past someone earlier. What if I hit them and didn't notice?"
"I touched that door handle. What if I'm now contaminated and I'll make my family ill?"
"I looked at that person. What if that means I'm attracted to them and I don't love my partner?"
"I had a violent image flash into my head. What if that means I'm capable of acting on it?"
You know, on some level, that these things are not true. Your senses are telling you that. But OCD tells you not to trust your senses. It tells you that the imagined version, the worst case scenario, is more reliable than your own lived experience.
Slowly, without realising it, you start to trust the "what if" more than what you actually saw, heard, or felt.
This is what Inference-based CBT (I-CBT) identifies as central to OCD. It is not really about the content of the thought. It is about OCD training your mind to distrust your own senses and replace them with imagination.
The vivid mental images. The worst case scenarios that feel so real and so possible. The sense that you cannot be certain of anything. That is not a reflection of who you are. That is OCD hijacking the gap between what is real and what could be imagined.
The guilt and shame you carry from these thoughts are not evidence of your character. They are evidence that you care deeply. That these thoughts go against your values.
Your mind has learned a painful pattern and that pattern can change.
If this resonates, please share it with someone who needs to hear it.
