Alexis Stephenson?s* baby was just a few weeks old when the first-time mom started having images of her family getting into a horrific car accident. Chalking it up to a traumatic few weeks?she had a difficult delivery and found out her baby had a heart defect?she tried to ignore them.
But instead of going away, the images intensified. She would imagine her daughter Julia?s neck snapping. Being around knives made her chest tighten and her breathing get shallow?she just couldn?t shake the feeling that knives were a danger and shouldn?t be near the baby. ?When I was making coffee, I was sure I was going to scald her. I saw her spinning around in the dryer. I started to become more and more scared of household appliances,? recalls the 37-year-old university professor who lives in Calgary. Stephenson was experiencing intrusive thoughts?fears, thoughts or images she knew were not real, or not in line with what she would want to do. She mentioned them to her family doctor and was referred to a mental health clinic where she was informed those thoughts were a sign of OCD. Some women with OCD experience images of unintentionally dropping their baby down the stairs, or accidentally drowning them in the bath. While it?s not uncommon to have intrusive thoughts (have you ever been in a museum and had an urge to touch a painting" Or imagined yourself jumping out of a moving car"), when you can?t get those thoughts out of your head, they become obsessions?and these obsessions ar...