Intrusive thoughts seem to come out of nowhere and are often related to sensitive issues such as violence, loss, or sexuality. Here you can find out what is behind these thoughts and how you can best deal with them.
You’re sitting on the train reading an entertaining book and suddenly a disturbing thought throws you off course. Apparently it came out of nowhere and actually contains completely immoral content from your point of view. The thought won’t let you go. You want nothing more than to get rid of it, but the more you try to push it away, the stronger it stays in your consciousness.
You are not alone in this. According to Harvard Medical School, many people are affected by these so-called intrusive thoughts. However, because they often trigger shame, fear, or guilt, most people don’t talk about them. As a result, those affected do not know how to deal with these thoughts.
They then mistakenly interpret intrusive thoughts as a signal for dark personality traits, try to analyze and dissect the thought precisely, or, on the contrary, frantically repress it. However, these approaches are not helpful. On the contrary: They can increase emerging fears, panic and self-doubt.
What are intrusive thoughts?
According to Harvard Medical School, you can recognize intrusive thoughts by three key characteristics:
- The thought is unusual for you and very different from your other everyday thoughts.
- The thought is disturbing. Accordingly, you feel the need to get rid of him as soon as possible.
- However, the thought is difficult to control and keeps coming back. In fact, the thought usually deepens the more you try to suppress it.
According to the science magazine Spektrum, intrusive thoughts are often about taboo and fear-inducing topics. These primarily include aggressiveness, bereavement events, hazards, contagious diseases and sexuality. Thoughts can appear either abstractly or as an explicit image.
Intrusive thoughts can also be a symptom of a mental illness, such as an eating disorder, or the result of unresolved trauma. However, this is not the case for most sufferers, according to Harvard Medical School. Because the disturbing thoughts are a very common phenomenon and usually no cause for concern.
Intrusive thoughts: What are they trying to tell us?
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According to the ADAA (Anxiety & Depression Association of America), many people find intrusive thoughts distressing primarily because they believe the disturbing thought says something negative about their personality. For example, they believe that repeated thoughts about violent acts are a sign that they actually want to engage in such acts.
Often, however, the opposite is the case: Precisely because people try so desperately to suppress a thought, it keeps coming back. And most of the time we want to suppress thoughts as quickly as possible if the content seems strange, unacceptable and immoral to us.
The ADAA also emphasizes that not every thought we have says something important about our personality. So it doesn’t make sense to want to analyze and understand every thought in detail. Sometimes just accepting a thought and waiting for it to go is enough.
This is how you get rid of disturbing thoughts
Harvard Medical School and the ADAA recommend the following steps to get rid of intrusive thoughts and not give them too much space:
- A disturbing thought comes up? Then first identify it as intrusive by examining it for the central characteristics.
- Now consciously say to yourself, “This is an intrusive thought. It doesn’t reflect who I am, what I actually think, what values I believe in or what I want to do.”
- Give yourself and your consciousness enough time so that the thought can go again.
- Accept that such thoughts may return.
- Don’t judge yourself for having intrusive thoughts every now and then. Remind yourself that these are just random thoughts and not symbols or signals that suggest your personality.
- If possible, just continue with what you were doing. Accept that you may have worries or a feeling of anxiety for a moment.
If intrusive thoughts increasingly restrict your everyday life, you should seek medical or psychological help. Even if disturbing thoughts only haunt you from time to time, but are a heavy burden, a (short-term) therapy can be useful.
Read more on Techzle.com:
- 6 things to change your mind
- Stop rumination: How to interrupt your thoughts
- The power of thoughts: How it can influence you positively