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<\/p>\nA young woman has revealed how she spent four years believing she was a paedophile before discovering she was actually suffering from a type of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Molly Lambert, 22, developed intrusive sexual and violent thoughts as a teenager that left her convinced she was a danger to others.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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What began as childhood anxiety and graphic fears about death soon escalated into relentless, unwanted thoughts that she says \u201cchanged my life forever.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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At 15, while revising for exams, Molly became consumed by the belief that a single intrusive thought meant she was a “monster”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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For six months, she says she lived in constant fight\u2011or\u2011flight mode; barely eating, not sleeping and terrified of being alone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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But after seeing a video of a woman talking about paedophile OCD (P-OCD) – a type of OCD in which an individual has unwanted sexual thoughts or images about children – on TikTok Molly was able to get diagnosed in July 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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P-OCD is not paedophilia and Molly is now speaking out to help others who may be silently suffering with intrusive thoughts.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The digital PR worker and mental health advocate from Deansgate, Manchester, said: \u201cI genuinely thought I was a paedophile.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cNo matter what you\u2019re worrying about, it\u2019s the same brain process each time, but when it\u2019s that deep, and such a horrid thought, the shame is unbearable.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Looking back, Molly believes the signs were there from childhood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She said: \u201cI always had OCD traits. I had graphic images about death, I was scared of everything.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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“I\u2019d obsess over things like Madeleine McCann and worry I would get kidnapped.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIf there was a brownie trip coming up, I\u2019d think about every single thing that could go wrong until my mum had to pick me up.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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But the turning point came when she was 15 during a family trip through an airport.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI saw a little girl wearing a crop top and short skirt and thought, \u2018That\u2019s weird for a child to wear that,\u2019\u201d Molly said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cAnd then I panicked – ‘why would I even notice that? Why would I think about that? She\u2019s a child’.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Though the thought faded at first, it returned months later while she was revising for exams.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She said: \u201cI was 15 and I remember thinking, \u2018Oh my gosh, I\u2019m a paedophile – I thought, I\u2019m never going to forget this thought. My life is over’.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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From that moment, Molly says she was trapped in her own mind.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cIt was fight or flight constantly. Every thought was dark, I wasn\u2019t eating properly, I wasn\u2019t sleeping, I was so scared of being alone and going to bed,” Molly said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI was lying to my parents saying I was stressed about exams, but I just couldn\u2019t put it into words.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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The intrusive thoughts expanded beyond one fear, and Molly began to question her past.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She said: \u201cI was thinking – ‘what if I\u2019ve hurt someone? What if I\u2019ve raped someone? What if I fancy my friends?’<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI even have a phobia of dogs and I\u2019d think – ‘what if I fancy my dog?’ I knew I didn\u2019t feel anything, but what if I was unsafe to everyone?<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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“The shame was overwhelming, I felt like a monster. I couldn\u2019t even tell anyone what I was going through.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Six months after the first thought, Molly started her first job at a caf\u00e9 in a swimming pool.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She said: \u201cI remember thinking, there are kids here and I honestly thought to myself that I would have to kill myself on my way home.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThat\u2019s how convinced I was that I was dangerous.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Despite loving children and describing herself as a \u201ckid person,\u201d she began changing her life choices out of fear.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Molly said: \u201cI told my parents I wanted to work in retail instead, I was changing my life because I thought I was unsafe.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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For four years, Molly suffered in silence, even studying psychology at university without realising she had OCD.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She said: \u201cI thought OCD was cleaning and tidying, that wasn\u2019t me at all. The more controlling forms of OCD like mine are the ones we don\u2019t talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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But after coming across a TikTok video in 2021 she was able to get diagnosed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Molly said: \u201cIt was a girl saying people think OCD is about cleaning, but she thought she fancied her niece, and I realised that there were people like me – and that I think I knew the issue.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cThe weight that lifted off my shoulders was crazy. I thought only freaks had this.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She began researching intrusive thoughts and confided in a friend at university, who encouraged her to seek therapy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Eventually, after breaking down to her parents, she started professional treatment, and was officially diagnosed in July 2025.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She said: \u201cI was hysterically crying. I couldn\u2019t even talk about the six months I thought I was going to kill myself.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cMy therapist said it is an awful thing to go to but that it is way more common than you would ever expect.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cGetting all of that outside of me was the biggest part of my journey. It felt like I was in a war with myself, but now I knew what I was fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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While Molly still experiences intrusive thoughts daily, her reaction to them has changed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cMy brain can still say, \u2018You\u2019re a paedophile,\u2019 but now I can tell myself that\u2019s not true,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cOCD won\u2019t let you move on from intrusive thoughts. Everyone has them, but OCD makes them stick.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Therapy helped her move from severe to mild on the diagnostic scale, though she admits recovery is ongoing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cI still have days where I feel consumed but now I can recognise it for what it is; an overly obsessive part of my brain,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Molly now uses her social media platforms to raise awareness and says she receives both support and hate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She said: \u201cI get a lot of hate, but this conversation is so important for the people suffering in silence.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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She believes the stigma around certain intrusive thoughts makes sufferers feel uniquely evil when in reality, OCD often attacks a person\u2019s core values.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Molly said: \u201cThe scariest part is how many people might not be here anymore because of this. I remember thinking I\u2019d be 50 and never escape these thoughts, or I would be dead.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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\u201cAlways talk to someone, once you understand what it is, you realise it\u2019s not you. It\u2019s OCD.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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To learn more about Molly’s journey, you can follow her TikTok – @\u200cmollambert<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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#Young #womans #medical #condition #convinced #paedophile<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A young woman has revealed how she spent four years believing she was a paedophile before discovering she was actually suffering from a type of obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD). Molly Lambert, 22, developed intrusive sexual and violent thoughts as a teenager that left her convinced she was a danger to others. What began as childhood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3939,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1788,3892,3891,1639,3890,1264],"class_list":{"0":"post-3938","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-featured","8":"tag-condition","9":"tag-convinced","10":"tag-medical","11":"tag-paedophile","12":"tag-womans","13":"tag-young"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3938","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3938"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3938\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3938"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3938"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.worldpumpnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3938"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}