Intrusive Thoughts Unveiled: Understanding the Phenomenon and Managing Your Mind

By Eziokwu Fab-Emerenini MBBS | Published on April 29, 2023
Reviewed By Gilmore Health | On: April 29, 2023

The typical human has thousands of thoughts per day. Most of them produce an undetectable hum in the background. But occasionally, a seemingly unrelated thought will draw our attention. These unanticipated thoughts occasionally fly right by. Other times, they persist and can be challenging to deal with. Such ideas are referred to as intrusive thoughts.

Intrusive Thoughts

What are intrusive thoughts?

Intrusive thoughts are unwanted ideas that seem to appear out of nowhere, they arrive suddenly and create a great deal of anxiety. Brain activity is the source of all thoughts, most people experience intrusive ideas. There are reported to be 6,200 thoughts produced daily by the brain. Not every one of those ideas will be pertinent or even true. Some of these might even qualify as “junk” thoughts, meaning that they are meaningless or arbitrary.

Any topic can be the subject of intrusive thoughts. However, the most disturbing intrusive thoughts are typically the negative ones. These unfavorable ideas frequently center on subjects that are found to be repulsive, unsettling, or frightening. They might violate a person’s values in other ways, be aggressive or sexual, or both. Sometimes, some of these thoughts don’t just make sense.

Intrusive thoughts are unconscious and unrelated to reality or a person’s desires, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America (ADAA). People rarely act on these ideas because they find them upsetting and unpleasant. Persistent intrusive thoughts can be extremely distressing. People frequently find that the more they struggle to get rid of these thoughts, the more intense and persistent they become.

Also, intrusive thoughts are usually linked with psychiatric disorders like; post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and depression.

Common types of intrusive thought

These are the commonest types of intrusive thoughts:

Explicit thoughts (Sex and sexuality): If you have uncomfortable thoughts about sexual behaviors that you view as taboo, you are not alone. Even though they would never act on these fantasies, some people have intrusive thoughts about having sex with kids. Talking about these feelings might be challenging, which might keep you from asking for assistance. Apart from the fear of being sexually attracted to infants, there is the fear of being sexually attracted to family members and fears about their sexual orientation.
Anxiety about contracting a major sickness or getting infections: Intruding thoughts frequently involve worries about pollution or germs. This could entail being concerned about getting sick or infecting others even when the likelihood is low. These bothersome thoughts can cause obsessive health worries and cause actions like too much hand washing, frequent visits to the doctor or social withdrawal.
Having thoughts of acting violently or illegally: It’s also typical to have intrusive ideas about breaking the law or acting violently toward others or yourself. You probably don’t want to do any of these things, and you probably feel angry thinking about them. However, possessing them may cause you to second-guess yourself. These thoughts include; harming loved ones or children, killing people, using knives or other items to harm people, and poisoning food for loved ones. If you can’t ignore violent thoughts that come to mind, they can be unpleasant.
Thoughts about eating disorders: People who suffer from eating disorders like anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa frequently have intrusive thoughts. Examples of compulsive behaviors are; beliefs in perfectionism, such as the notion that a person is undeserving of love if they do not obtain a “perfect” body, compulsive worries about gaining weight, false and intrusive ideas about looks, obsessions with eating, skipping meals, counting calories, or “earning” food.
Thoughts that cause doubt: One of the most prevalent sorts of intrusive thoughts is doubt. Your life’s major or minor details may be the subject of your doubts. These thoughts could make you wonder if you locked the door, took out the garbage, or sent the correct person a text message.

Causes of intrusive thoughts

Intrusive thoughts can affect anyone, and not everyone with them has a diagnosis. Some possible causes are as follows:

Post-traumatic stress disorder: Exposure to a stressful experience can lead to the development of PTSD, a mental health disease. People with PTSD frequently experience intrusive thoughts about prior events, such as participating in a war or enduring maltreatment as a child.
Anxiety disorders: Generalized anxiety disorder, OCD, and other anxiety disorders are known to lead to recurrent, frequent intrusive thoughts. Compulsions, or ritualistic actions, are used by those with OCD to control these thoughts.
Anxiety: A person may have a variety of intrusive thoughts when they are temporarily anxious, such as they might feel before undergoing a medical procedure. These could include the idea of passing away or becoming hurt.
Postpartum depression: Postpartum depression affects a lot of new mothers and might lead to intrusive thoughts. At least 70% of new mothers, according to researchers, experience disturbing worries about something bad occurring to their infants. Additionally, half of new mothers experience intrusive thoughts about intentionally hurting their infants.

Managing your mind

Getting involved with unwanted thoughts, worrying about them, battling them, or attempting to rationalize them away just serves to strengthen them. By attempting to avoid them, they become stronger as well. The thoughts will ultimately vanish into the background if you ignore them and act as though they aren’t even interested.

Here are some steps you can follow:

Label these thoughts as “intrusive thoughts.”
Remind yourself that these thoughts are automatic and not up to you.
Accept and allow the thoughts into your mind. Do not try to push them away.
Float and practice allowing time to pass.
Remember that less is more. Pause. Give yourself time. There is no urgency.
Expect the thoughts to come back again
Continue whatever you were doing prior to the intrusive thought while allowing the anxiety to be present.

Treatment for your condition may be able to help you manage the thoughts if your intrusive thoughts are a result of a mental health diagnosis. A combination of medicine and psychotherapy may be used to treat conditions like OCD or PTSD. Psychotherapeutic measures like cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and exposure and response prevention (ERP) could help.

Conclusion

Unwanted, unconscious, and frequently disturbing thoughts are known as intrusive thoughts. People who have these thoughts often find them upsetting and choose not to act on them. Sometimes intrusive thoughts are a symptom of a deeper mental health issue. Their origin isn’t known in other instances. The intrusive thoughts might become less frequent with treatment for the underlying issue.