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While both Harm OCD and desire to harm someone involve thoughts relating to harm, distinct features can help differentiate between the two.

Instead of beating yourself up for feeling anxious about your OCD symptoms, you can rewire your brain to help dial down self-critical thoughts and compassionately comfort the parts of yourself that are struggling.

How do I know if I have self-harm OCD or if I actually want to kill myself? This is a significant differentiation to make because it can have treatment-impacting and even life-threatening consequences.

Whether we hear the term from a client, another provider, or our own classification of someone’s symptoms, “compulsions” tend carry with them some level of assumption – that this might just be OCD.

Harm inducing types of thoughts, images and urges are typically referred to as Harm OCD and they can cause significant distress and anxiety in sufferers.

Shame is “just” a feeling, but it can become very big and very painful. If it feels very big, it doesn’t mean there is something even worse about you, but rather that there are layers to it. We can make it smaller and more manageable by talking about it and listening to it. When you understand it and the feeling is smaller, it will be easier for you to work with it.  

For Jill, it was useful to know that the house wouldn’t burn down if she stopped checking; but it was more important to learn that she would still be a worthwhile human being even if it did.