{"id":649,"date":"2026-04-06T20:18:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/?p=649"},"modified":"2026-04-06T20:18:00","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T20:18:00","slug":"22-year-old-woman-worries-she-may-be-a-pedophile-she-was-then-diagnosed-with-a-rare-form-of-ocd-i-thought-i-was-a-monster","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/golliza.com\/?p=649","title":{"rendered":"22-year-old woman worries she may be a pedophile. She was then diagnosed with a rare form of OCD: “I thought I was a monster.”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Molly Lambert struggled with intrusive thoughts for years before discovering pedophile-themed OCD (P-OCD) through a TikTok video<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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She was officially diagnosed with P-OCD in 2025 after suffering from shame and keeping her distressing thoughts a secret.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
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By talking about her experience, Lambert was able to connect with others and work to reduce the stigma surrounding P-OCD.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For seven years, a woman believed she was a pedophile, until a rare diagnosis explained her intrusive thoughts.<\/p>\n
Molly Lambert, 22, from Manchester, England, grew up suffering from anxiety and panic attacks. She remembered thinking about death and kidnapping all the time. However, by the age of 15, things had escalated and he began having constant sexual and violent thoughts about children.<\/p>\n
“My thinking has shifted in ways I’ve never experienced before,” she said. Southwest News Service<\/em>. “I was beginning to think that I was a pedophile, a rapist, a predator, and that I could harm others.”<\/p>\n
Lambert said the intrusive thoughts were so severe that she felt like she was a danger to others, including friends and family.<\/p>\n\n
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Molly-Lambert-040626-675281c445c34bbd90b587913b58e1a9.jpg Credit: William Lailey \/ SWNS<\/i><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n\n
When Lambert was 19 years old, she discovered a TikTok video about P-OCD, an obsessive-compulsive disorder that revolves around pedophilia. She began to realize that she was not alone in her experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought OCD, like many people, meant cleaning and organizing. can<\/em> You can participate, but it\u2019s one theme among all the other themes you can experience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
According to the Mayo Clinic, “Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is characterized by a pattern of unwanted thoughts and fears that lead to repetitive behaviors (compulsions).”In P-OCD, instead of repeating physical behaviors, people experience ruminative thoughts, or persistent thoughts about a particular subject, event, or emotion. What makes it difficult for many people is that such thoughts often continue without conclusion.<\/p>\n
According to the National Institutes of Health, people with P-OCD experience excessive worry and distressing intrusive thoughts about being sexually attracted to or sexually assaulting children.<\/p>\n\n
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Despite learning about P-OCD online, Lambert said she still felt insecure about her thoughts and kept it a secret. She has suffered for years and dealt with a “dark spiral” of shame.<\/p>\n
“You think you’re a monster and don’t deserve to exist,” she said. “What’s embarrassing is how you see yourself. Even years later, those feelings can linger.”<\/p>\n
Lambert tried therapy, but was never honest about her situation, telling experts only that she suffered from “dark thoughts.” Eventually, my panic attacks from intrusive thoughts got worse and I finally decided to become invisible.<\/p>\n
In August 2025, Lambert was officially diagnosed with P-OCD.<\/p>\n
“It’s not that you’re a pedophile. It’s that these thoughts exist and your brain is trapped by them,” she explained. “OCD is all about uncertainty. It tells you ‘what if?'” and you can’t prove it wrong. \u201d<\/p>\n
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Although Lambert is receiving help, she still has difficulty overcoming her symptoms. She admitted that if she had been diagnosed earlier, “I could have saved myself many years of suffering.” But she said going public with her experience helped her a lot and allowed her to connect with others going through the same experience.<\/p>\n
“Getting it out was the most helpful thing,” she told the outlet. \u201cI avoided talking about it for years, but once I did, it felt like a lightening of the air.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe response has been overwhelming,\u201d she continued. \u201cPeople say they cried all the time, that they felt this way for years but couldn’t tell anyone. Parents have contacted us saying they have an obsession with hurting their children. Some have ended up in psychiatric wards or even tried to take their own lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lambert said she wants to remove the stigma and let others know that these unwanted thoughts don’t make her or them the bad guys.<\/p>\n
“People don’t talk about it, so that makes it worse…You have to label it in a way that disempowers you,” she said. “This allows people to take a step back and realize that it’s their brain, not the monster.”<\/p>\n
Read the original article on People<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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