![]() ![]() “Some people who already have OCD may also naturally gravitate toward manifestation teachings and try to follow them perfectly in an attempt to seek certainty,” Kress says. The law of attraction was so exciting to me because it made me feel like if I could manifest bad things, I could also manifest good things. Teachings on the law of attraction are appealing because they suggest we can actually control everything.įor me, reading “The Secret ” felt good because it validated my suspicion that I was, in fact, manifesting everything in my life. The idea of being able to control and predict the future is irresistible to us. Those of us living with the disorder often feel the need to be certain about the future - which can form a part of another cognitive distortion called intolerance of uncertainty. In his article, Pizey explained that he felt attracted to the law of attraction because of his OCD. But it did stop me from seeking help and recognizing my mental illness for what it is.Īnd thinking about manifestation and the law of attraction does trigger my OCD symptoms. No, learning about manifestation will not cause OCD. Learning about manifestation does not cause OCD “I became increasingly worried that if I thought about harming someone, then the law of attraction could actually make it happen,” he wrote. In an article about OCD and the law of attraction, Pizey shared how learning about manifestation made him struggle with his own OCD symptoms.Īfter reading a book about the law of attraction, he became obsessed with it and felt that it undid his progress with therapy. Likewise, questions on Quora and social media sites suggest that many other people with OCD and anxiety disorders are struggling with the same concern. Many comments in that thread echo the sentiment. “I’m extremely anxious over the idea that OCD + intrusive thoughts could be unintentionally manifesting negative things and this is making daily life difficult,” one Reddit user shared. It looks like I’m not the only person who struggled with OCD and the law of attraction, though. This has worsened both my obsessions and compulsions, and for a long time, it made me feel like an awful person because I couldn’t control my thoughts. “Remember that your thoughts are the primary cause of everything,” author Rhonda Byrne writes in “The Secret,” confirming exactly what my OCD tells me. When I Google “will I manifest my negative thoughts?” I get dozens of results telling me that it is, indeed, possible. “Unfortunately, though, the tells people the opposite, that not only can they manifest good things into their lives through positive thinking, but also undesirable things through negative thinking.” “Most therapy and coaching works by helping the individual to realize that these kinds of thoughts are not rational,” explains Robert James Pizey, an OCD coach and teacher. Perhaps in another world we’d recognize this cognitive distortion for what it is, but in a society where manifestation “advice” is constantly doled out by celebrities, influencers, and authors, it’s hard not to feel like those irrational thoughts are actually founded in truth. Because I can’t stop thinking about it, I fear that I’ll manifest it. This persistent, distressing, intrusive thought is the “O” in my OCD: the obsession. At times, I constantly visualize this murder in detail, and I’ll be unable to stop those thoughts. I often fear that I’ll murder people around me, even though I have no reason to think it’ll actually happen. Like many other people with OCD, I tend to think that we’ll manifest the worst just by thinking about it. “Manifestation teachings such as the law of attraction are very similar to cognitive distortion, which is a risk factor for developing anxiety disorders and OCD.” ![]() “Likelihood thought-action fusion is a cognitive distortion that leads people to believe that the mere thought of a negative event increases the likelihood of it happening,” explains Anna Kress, a licensed clinical psychologist in private practice in Princeton, New Jersey. One of those cognitive distortions is called likelihood thought-action fusion. People who have certain cognitive distortions - in other words, a tendency to think in certain irrational ways - are more likely to develop OCD. ![]()
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