Quick facts:

  • Pedophilia OCD (POCD) refers to a common OCD theme in which one fears being sexually attracted to and/or sexually harming children.
  • It is distinctly different than pedophilia disorder.
  • OCD does not care about the sufferer’s true values or desires.
  • POCD is highly treatable.

Overview

For the non-OCD brain, having a thought such as, “What if I was attracted to this kid?” could be cast aside and forgotten about quickly. The person might note that it was a disturbing thought, but it doesn’t get stuck on replay. For the OCD sufferer, however, these are exactly the kinds of thoughts that get stuck on replay and torment the person with OCD to the point where they can no longer function.

The thought is taken as truth, as if they wanted the thought. The sufferer becomes obsessed with finding absolute certainty that they are not attracted to and would never harm a child. This is an important note between pedophilia and OCD. With the former disorder, whether they act on the thoughts or not, one’s fantasies center around children. Though they may feel ashamed, the thoughts are enjoyable.

With the latter disorder, the person is disgusted by and terrified of the thoughts. They engage in avoidance, rumination, and other compulsions just to get away from them. Someone with pedophilia OCD will often spend hundreds of hours questioning if they have OCD or if they truly are at risk of sexually harming or being attracted to a child.

Symptoms of Pedophilia OCD

The situations in which one is triggered can vary widely, but general symptoms of OCD fear of pedophilia include:

  • Extreme distress over the possibility of being attracted to and/or sexually harming children
  • Persistent intrusive thoughts surrounding this possibility
  • Avoidance of children
  • Persistent rumination over whether or not you are attracted to/have sexually harmed a child
  • Checking for groinal responses when around or thinking of children
  • Impairment to daily life due to the obsessions and compulsions

With pedophilia OCD, preschool teachers, medical professionals, parents, uncles and aunts, nannies are so overwhelmed with their obsessions ans fears they refuse to be present around children, in fear they will lose control.

Other common examples of pedophilia OCD involve changing child’s diaper and excessively worrying you will touch them, later avoiding changing diapers, sitting at the park and wondering if you’re attracted to the kids playing, later avoiding the park, etc.

If POCD arousal feels real, that’s because groinal responses are common when we’re thinking about them so much. It doesn’t mean we are actually interested in our thoughts.

If you are thinking, “This describes exactly what I am going through!”, we are happy to say that help is available for you. We have wonderful, highly trained therapists who can get your life back from health anxiety and related illness anxiety disorders using evidence-based treatment modalities. Click here to fill out an interest form and we will reach out to discuss options.

Treatment for Pedophilia OCD-Recovery for Pedophilia Obsessions

At the beginning of your treatment, your therapist will engage in a thorough assessment of your symptoms and complete a pedophilia OCD test, called the Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS).  This assessment will help you identify the compulsions you engage in and the obsessions that you are struggling with.

Once the assessment is complete, your therapist will then educate you on the next steps.  They will explain the treatment plan and  will also educate you on tools that will help you manage your obsessions, such as mindfulness tools, self-compassion tools and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT).

The gold-standard treatment of POCD is the same as any other OCD theme: exposure response prevention therapy (ERP).

ERP for pedophilia obsessions consists of exposing oneself to the feared stimuli--in this case, being around children--and then learning to not engage in compulsions. ERP is a tiered system created together by the therapist and client, starting off slow and working up to eliminating as many compulsions as you can.

The key to recovery of any type of OCD is learning to accept uncertainty and tolerate discomfort. In the case of POCD, this would look like sitting at the park where children are playing, accepting the discomfort of thoughts like “am I attracted to them?”, and not ruminating on whether or not it’s true.

You allow your thoughts to come and go without automatically attaching meaning or truth to them.

If you have some or all of these symptoms and you feel like the above information describes you, we would LOVE to help you. Click here to contact Kimberley Quinlan, LMFT and her team.