Otter wrote:I have not read the book, but almost any reason that brings someone to admit to having suicidal thoughts is going to yield the response, "get help immediately". Even if suicidal intrusive OCD thoughts are like most other OCD thoughts (irrational), most responses are still going to be "get help immediately". It also shows that most people are to afraid to speak up about this. No mother wants to admit to having thoughts of killing her child, no boyfriend wants to admit to having thoughts of stabbing his girlfriend so unfortunately they live a life of trying to repress these thoughts, thinking they are evil people that will one day snap and commit these atrocious acts. urn:lcp:impofmind00leeb:epub:2976469a-5040-44a8-9bbf-989bf3668b47 Foldoutcount 0 Identifier impofmind00leeb Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t4dn58j4g Isbn 0525945628

Okay, so I'm reading the book The Imp of the Mind, and it goes through several factors of when someone should be worried of their intrusive thoughts. One of them was basically if you're having suicidal ideation, get help. ASAP. All the others, as far as harming others, I can say don't apply to me... but the suicidal ideation does. I'm just so tired of having these thoughts, they terrify me. When it comes down to it, I know, I KNOW that I don't want to harm others but I think if I have to kill myself to protect others from me, I will. The thought of dying does somewhat comfort me in knowing that I won't have to deal with these thoughts and won't have to worry about harming others. I don't want to kill myself, which is why I'm seeking emergency help when I get off of work tonight, but even more so, I don't want to harm others.OCD has been shown by modern psychologists to be on the same continuum as Tourette's syndrome. In fact, many of the one illness also have the other, about 75% of those with Tourette's have clinical OCD, and ~25% the other way. This book by a psychologist who helped developed some of the therapy used for OCD actually seems a bit dated now, but it was only published five years ago (in 2001). Anyway, Baer focuses on the obsessive part of OCD (that's the imp, from Edgar Allen Poe's "Imp of the Perverse"). Baer likes his classic quotes and has many, which add a bit of historical interest and depth to his book.

A useful resource, though I think the author should have made an effort to distinguish more between OCD and "pure O", where the former is accompanied by a compulsive action often unrelated to the nature of the obsession, i.e. the seemingly nonsensical repetition of flipping a light switch on-and-off to prevent someone's family member from getting into a car accident, and where "pure O" is limited to intrusive thoughts without the accompanying compulsion to perform a specific action to rid oneself of such thoughts. At that point in my illness I was devouring every bit of vaguely “OCD” media I could find: documentaries, news reports, reality TV, celebrity interviews, standup comedy, even specials about psych wards in general – anything that gave me some insight into the humanity of a person with mental illness. This journey is very common. Statistics indicate it can take a person with OCD up to 17 years to get appropriate treatment. It’s thought 1 in 50 people has it. In his book about obsessive negative thoughts, The Imp of the Mind, Lee Baer calls it “the silent epidemic”. not only are these bad thoughts universal among all humans today, but they have almost certainly always been a part of the human condition, at least since man first developed language and then rules to govern appropriate behavior in groups."Before reading this book I simply thought that the problem of obsessive thoughts was merely a symptom of anxiety issues (I've dealt with anxiety problems and didn't realize it could be the core of the problem) and not the issue itself. But now that this has been brought to light, it makes perfect sense. Thoughts can be scary. It explored the fact that all people have these thoughts and while the majority of people can just let the thoughts pass and not worry about it, some people can not. These people usually spurned on OCD or postpartum depression, to PTSD and so on can latch onto these thoughts and obsess over them, thinking they are evil people. In recent years several other shows have dipped their toes in the intrusive thought and compulsive response cycle without even realising it at all. Overall, the text does a very well job normalizing intrusive thoughts. I appreciated the historical references made of past historical notes made referencing OCD thoughts and stories of modern day cultural icons that may have also experienced difficulties with obsessive symptoms.