“If I had an intrusive thought, I’d restart the walk from the bus stop,” she says. Intrusive thoughts can be extremely distressing and often focus on topics that feel completely at odds with a person’s values or identity. “A really common one is intrusive thoughts about contamination and worries about getting ill or spreading sickness,” she says. “OCD-related thoughts don’t pass on, they take up residence and they’re never positive thoughts – they’re aggressive, hostile and not easy to deal with. “Drawing what OCD looks like can help – there’s me and there’s OCD, and those are two different things.”Self-care also matters.