MENTAL HEALTH SESSION
Why You Have Intrusive or Obsessive Thoughts — and What to Do About Them
At any given time, you are only partly in control of the thoughts that pop into your head.
Ideas, observations, judgments, memories, bits of music, and a thousand other types of mental jetsam are constantly flowing through your mind, according to research — and most of that is going on without your say-so.
A lot of these thoughts arise without you being aware of them. For example, a song might be stuck in your head for most of an afternoon before you take notice of it. But other times, an uninvited thought or image can pop into your head and immediately surprise you or catch your attention. Experts refer to these attention-grabbing thoughts as intrusive thoughts.
Nearly everyone experiences intrusive thoughts at some point in life. In general, they’re not a problem. However, for some people they can become very difficult to manage and can contribute to significant anxiety, distress, sadness, or self-doubt. These intrusive thoughts are known as obsessive thoughts, and they can be problematic for your mental health.
*What Are Intrusive Thoughts?*
“These are thoughts you didn’t try to generate, and that come in and affect your other thoughts,” “These happen to everyone, and they can be positive, negative, or neutral.”
Intrusive thoughts happen to almost everyone from time to time, and they’re often harmless. “But sometimes they are negative in a way that catches our attention, often because they are against who we are or who we want to be,”
For example, someone who is very religious might notice themselves having thoughts they find blasphemous, or offensive to religion, “Or you might have a thought about hurting yourself or harming someone else,”
Although these thoughts may be uncomfortable or disturbing, for most people they simply pass through their head and don’t stick around
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