You might be both worried and judgmental about having these thoughts. Unlike sexual fantasies that bring pleasure, sexual obsessions cause immense fear, worry, guilt, and self-disgust. This doesn’t even include people who remain unwilling to confess their forbidden thoughts. Around 6% to 24% of people with OCD are likely to experience some form of sexual obsession. Sexually intrusive thoughts are normal, and sexual OCD might be more common than you think. Such thoughts can occur in people of any age and gender. Who Experiences Sexually Intrusive Thoughts?

Sexual interest that contradicts your orientation (e.g., thoughts of gay sex if you’re straight and vice versa).

Socially inappropriate sexual behavior (e.g., an extramarital affair).

Deviant sexual interests like sadism, masochism, or enslavement.

Blasphemous sex (e.g., sex in a place of worship).

Sexual violence, molestation, or sexual abuse.

This can take many forms like obsessions about: Sexually intrusive thoughts or sexual obsessions are not sexual fantasies but genuine worries about your own sexual tendencies. In sexual OCD, your mind is plagued by sexually intrusive thoughts. If the forceful thoughts that take over your mind are of a sexual nature, this is called sexual OCD. Therefore, you won’t want to act on your obsessions but would rather try to control and suppress your thoughts. This is because the obsessive thoughts that affect you in this case will most likely contradict your morals and values (e.g., thoughts of religious blasphemy or sexual molestation). Instead, they’re likely to experience mental compulsions and a strong desire for reassurance. This is considered a purely obsessional (pure 'o') type of OCD because most people don’t develop any specific or obvious rituals to handle these obsessions.

You experience obsessive thoughts about taboo subjects like religion, violence, and sex or sexual orientation. Obsession with forbidden thoughts and behaviors. You exhibit compulsive touching, arranging, and tapping behaviors due to a feeling of “incompleteness” and an intense need for symmetry and order. You display compulsive safety-checking behavior due to a fear of accidental harm. You develop compulsive washing and cleaning behaviors due to a fear of germs or being unclean. OCD is broadly classified into four types based on the types of invasive thoughts you experience. For example, if you have a deep-rooted and obsessive fear of germs and disease, you may develop compulsive cleaning or handwashing habits. You become convinced that your compulsive behavior is a response to your obsessive thoughts, fears, and worries, resulting in OCD. The comfort and familiarity of a ritual give you relief and make you believe that you’re doing something to prevent what you’re afraid of happening. One way to do that is to develop compulsive behaviors or rituals.

The worries often feel so burdensome and upsetting that you begin to look for ways to relieve your anxiety. Fears of unlikely events and worries about common, everyday problems exceed the normal levels of anxiety and turn into obsessions. These thoughts usually represent deep-seated fears that may have become exaggerated in your mind. Professionals believe that you develop obsessions because of uncontrollable, forceful thoughts that seem to invade your mind. If you’re experiencing this disorder, you might have some repetitive and unwanted obsessive and compulsive behaviors like frequent cleaning and handwashing, hoarding, counting and arranging things in a specific way, and repeating words in your head. OCD is generally considered a type of anxiety disorder. Here’s what you need to know about sexual OCD, sexual intrusive thoughts’ examples and types, how to deal with them, and more. This is especially true for less-discussed OCD types like sexual OCD because of the stigma associated with discussing subjects of a sensitive, controversial, or sexual nature. Whether it’s you, a family member, or a friend, living with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) can be challenging.

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