In Standard OCD, people repeat a counterproductive or fruitless action with manic intensity
In Pure OCD, there is no outward physical action – the problem unfolds purely in the mind
The Pure OCD sufferer is tortured by thoughts that they want to do or have done some of the most abhorred acts in our society — acts that they themselves despise or fear at an intellectual level
They cannot shut out the idea that they may become or have already shown signs that they are a horrible person
Burdened by these thoughts they will fear things like going near a knife in a drawer, flooded with anxiety at a train station, having to think in these terms drains life of its pleasure
Pure OCD sufferer wakes up in the morning believing they might be one of the worst people to ever walk the earth
Psychiatrists tend to prescribe antidepressants to lift mood and thereby lessen the tendency to ruminate to the point of exhaustion
CBT psychologists will try to argue closely with the intrusive thoughts so sufferers can acknowledge they really have no attention of doing something obscene
Psychotherapists believe offering assurance on these points only legitimates a pattern of thinking that have no basis in reality
They think the person with Pure OCD has a first and foremost a problem with self-esteem and shame (note: see YT comments, many viewers don’t agree with this)
The person feels at some level utterly disgusting and beyond the pale
Current thoughts are not the plans for the future – they are attempts by the mind to find a match between their basic sense of self and what would be needed by society to concur with it — they want the judgment of the world to fall in line with the judgment of the self.
Cases of Pure OCD are often diagnosed after sufferers achieve something successful in the eyes of others, things when there is need of celebration — but it simply feels unwarranted.
In societies that find religious transgression particularly abhorrent, Pure OCD sufferers will suffer feelings that they’ve offended God and are about to be outed as sinners.
Behind the Pure OCD is a need to find a reason to feel awful – it isn’t about this or that condemned act, as the definition of awful changes so does that content of intrusive thoughts.
The disease is rooted in self-loathing — what the Pure OCD sufferer needs above all else to to begin to repair self-loathing and shame — through repeated encounters with an outsider, they need to learn they’re not the worthless being they take themselves for.
These will start to lift once the afflicted learns the most vital of arts – being a friend to oneself.