I am 54 years old male Christian and I have had OCD most of my life. I was diagnosed with this illness twenty-six years ago and I am still learning how to deal with this illness when I experience bad intrusive and obsessive sexual about a woman and worrisome thoughts. The two best treatments I have used effectively to stop these two types of thoughts are called thought replacement and the exposure and reaction treatment.
Thought ReplacementFor many years, I have replaced bad intrusive and obsessive sexual and worrisome thoughts with good ones. I call this stinky thinking and to me and it does stink because since I have OCD and will go I go over and over a thought many times. Therefore, my mind is preoccupied from the moment I have an immoral thought about the female I will first think and truly believe that she is a lady and daughter of God. Most of the time this type of positive thinking gets rid of the thought I consider inappropriate and thus, I am able to let go of the repetitive thought.
Another stinking thinking rumination occurs to me sometimes when a single word will pop into my mind and then I will remember the definition of it. But within a moment a totally new definition of something else will come into my mind. It is a word, however, I cannot remember it even though I know words that define something. Then over and over I worry what is the word. I call this obsession word checking. It is then when start thinking of something really positive such as my two beautiful daughters,
three cute grandsons, and the rest of my family. This brings me great joy and the worrisome thoughts banish.
Exposure and Reaction Treatment (ERT)This method is the best treatment I have discovered and I found it just recently in a book I was reading. What I do that is so effective is I write down in my OCD journal an pleasant thought either like the sexual one or the obsessive worry that I described. When I put it on a page of paper it puts any anxiety I have because of the thought or troublesome worry and it transfers these negative impressions onto the paper. This method of treatment stops my fear of thinking and worrying about unpleasant and stressful things. Therefore, the exposure and reaction treatment exposes my stinky thinking in my journal. I suggest you try exposing your distasteful thoughts inner thoughts and see if it works for you.
One last thought: You can use ERT to stop unwanted compulsive behaviors such as a person who washes his/her hands over and over again.