Woman who worried she was a pedophile opens up about moment she told family
Warning: This article contains themes of OCD pertaining to intrusive thoughts about children, which some may find triggering.
A 22-year-old woman, who was diagnosed with a form of OCD that gave her intrusive thoughts about being attracted to children, has revealed how she broke the news to her parents.
Molly Lambert appeared on ITV’s This Morning today (June 8), where she told UK hosts, Cat Deeley and Ben Shephard, just how daunting it was when the first thought came to her mind as she was prepping to go on vacation.
Revealing all, she explained that all it took was for her to think in passing that a young girl’s outfit was inappropriate for her age.
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From there, Molly was thrown into a nightmare that left her close to ending her own life.
It was only years later, after breaking down to her parents, that she was finally diagnosed with a sub-type of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, known as P-ODC.
It’s this type that sees people having uncontrollable and unwanted thoughts of children in sexual ways – which leaves them feeling extreme stress and in a crisis.
Molly explained that it took a major toll on her mental health and she soon believed her thoughts meant that she was a pedophile who would be arrested if she told anyone about her thoughts.
Speaking on the show, Molly revealed how her parents took the news.
She explained: “Obviously, when I first experienced it at 14, 15, I had no idea that OCD looked like this and could be anything that what I was experiencing.”
However, Molly knew that she was having thoughts of 'harming people and being a pedophile’.
She shared that her school exam period at school made things ‘worse’, which suddenly had her dependent on being around people, despite having been previously an independent person.
The 22-year-old said: “I mean my parents are amazing and like they've always been very, like, emotionally intelligent and quite an open household. And I thought I can never tell them that I'm obsessing about being a pedophile.”
Sharing it sounds ‘ridiculous’ and 'irrational’, but the thoughts still led to her getting ill.
Molly said through it all: “I couldn't eat. I lost so much weight. I wasn't sleeping. I was so terrified to be alone because obviously when you're alone, you know, the thoughts get worse. My parents were like, ‘Why is she always with us all the time?’
“I was quite an independent person before, and I was, you know, sitting in their bed all the time and just like terrified. They thought I was nervous about my exams. That was that was the least of my worries, you know.”
But in the end, Molly said ‘they were amazing’ after she ‘broke down on Christmas Eve’.
She told them she had been ‘having these thoughts for years’ and she thought it was OCD.
Molly went on to say: “Obviously, they didn't know what I was talking about. I was quite distressed and um, they got me therapy pretty quickly. I mean, I was quite reluctant to go. I was just terrified. I thought if I admit this and say the word pedophile, it's going to be I'm going to police will be there and whatever. And my therapist was just amazing.”
If you’ve been affected by any of these issues and want to speak to someone in confidence, please don’t suffer alone. Call Samaritans for free on their anonymous 24-hour phone line on 116 123 or contact Harmless by visiting their website https://harmless.org.uk.
Alternatively, the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM) is there to support you. They're open from 5pm–midnight, 365 days a year. Their national number is 0800 58 58 58 and they also have a webchat service if you're not comfortable talking on the phone.
Topics: Mental Health, UK News
Britt Jones