Intrusive thoughts are terrifying. It’s a testament to our collective willpower that we haven’t horrifically murdered each other.
Also, I’m really glad the phrase “intrusive thoughts” came along. It made the whole thing a lot easier to talk about.
Collective willpower? Or centuries worth of social contract? Humans are kind of just animals who can predict the future by writing down the past.
I’ve had some pretty nasty intrusive thoughts. I’d like to believe it’s more than just social conditioning that kept them under wraps. But maybe.
There was the concept of “devil told me to do it”
That’s just “I wanted to do it.” but dressed up in “it’s not socially acceptable to want that.”
I would like to believe that despite it is hard for most people not to have intrusive thoughts, it is much easier not to act on them.
I just learned their name thanks to your comment.
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I’m sorry if this sounds callous but I utterly disregard your notion with predjudice.
They aren’t intrusive thoughts, they’re just your thoughts, stop being afraid of thinking.
Now if you lack impulse control, then we have a problem.
Edit: We need a new term for the phobia of imagination and thought. I suggest Thinkophobia.
Not all thoughts are consciously summoned, wanted, or pleasant. The term intrusive thoughts is a good way to describe those thoughts we find unpleasant. Yes, they are natural and normal, and often how we grapple with and process experiences, but that doesn’t make them unobtrusive.
Additionally, many people have intrusive recollections of upsetting events from the past. Intrusive thoughts is a good descriptor that helps avoid over using terms like flashbacks or PTSD.
Clarifying such things as intrusive helps destigmatize these thoughts for people who have them and feel the weight of social expectations, like new parents as in the comic. Feeling guilty about having these thoughts isn’t healthy, and properly describing them as unwanted helps people process them. I don’t see what is particularly objectionable or hard to understand about the term and why being more specific in the description of one thoughts is off-putting to you.
Not all thoughts are consciously summoned, wanted, or pleasant. The term intrusive thoughts is a good way to describe those thoughts we find unpleasant.
I am not emotionally disturbed by my ‘intrusive thoughts’ because they have as much bearing on reality as whether I like the smell of burnt toast. They are also my thoughts, I take full ownership of them, they aren’t something that happens to me they’re something I do.
Clarifying such things as intrusive helps destigmatize these thoughts for people who have them and feel the weight of social expectations
I don’t see what is particularly objectionable or hard to understand about the term and why being more specific in the description of one thoughts is off-putting to you.
I’m disheartened by the fact that people feel they need to thought police themselves for the benefit of a society that will never engage with those figments of their imaginations.
That is legitimately depressing and I feel sorry for those people. I wish them the best in developing more significant and functional mental fortitude. Sorry if I offended anyone, it wasn’t my intention.
Edit: downvotes for caring, love the hypocrisy of this place sometimes.
Everyone is different, and life is path dependent. Some people don’t struggle with difficult memories, and others have simply not lived an unpleasant enough life to have accrued the emotional scars.
However, being blatantly brusque in your description of others followed by “sorry if I offended” is the epitome of ringing hollow. At least be honest; you don’t care if you offended others.
I wasn’t being disingenuous and I’m sorry the way I express myself makes you feel that way.
I don’t suffer their affliction, I have no personal experience with their incapacities. I don’t let my pain define me, I own my thoughts, and even when I don’t like the things I think, they are mine alone to think about.
I honestly and genuinely wish anyone who is afflicted by their own thoughts can access the tools and skills they need to improve their mental fortitude and improve their lives by learning to tolerate themselves.
If you disagree with that then you have bigger issues than intrusive thoughts.
I recognize that my intrusive thoughts are my own, but this term existing is helpful because: 1) some people incorrectly believe that thoughts imply a desired outcome, and this term helps explain and describe that this isn’t always the case and 2) it’s a meaningful and useful way of categorizing these types of thoughts for the purposes of psychology, psychiatry, understanding ourselves better, etc.
In cases like severe OCD, classifying intrusive thoughts as such could help someone understand and cope with disturbing thoughts and develop subsequent coping mechanisms. Not everyone’s the same and some terms can be helpful.
I don’t disagree with any of that. But if someone wants to take steps to not being afflicted by their own thoughts you might think it appropriate to listen to those with the experience and skill to not be afflicted by their own thoughts.
No one here has any interest in changing their thinking to improve their capacity to enjoy life, they all want to bitch that I have no idea what I’m talking about, despite apparently being the only one here with a legitimate capacity to not be disturbed by my own internal monologue, and wallow in their shared failure to have emotional control over themselves.
It’s a literal pitty party and it’s pathetic.
You’re not being downvoted for “caring”, you’re being downvoted for sounding like condescending, pompous arse. If you’re not purposefully trying to be a dick, you might want to try developing your empathy skills. And ditch the non-apologies, they just make you seem even more disingenuous.
I am a condescending pompous arse, an ego earned by being correct. I’m empathetic, but I’m not sympathetic to those who would ignore a way of thinking that is not afflicted by the same weakness as their own. And my apologies are entirely genuine and your disbelief has no bearing on that reality it just makes you look more the fool you choose to be.
there’s only one person looking the fool around here.
I wish it were so few.
Can you even hear yourself?! Jesus Christ. I’ll leave you to reveal in your misplaced superiority complex, but fyi non apologies aren’t subjective and yours are a textbook case. It’s not the most pressing lesson you need to learn, but if you’re going to go through life being such an arse you should at least know how to apologise properly.
For it to be a complex my inference has to be incorrect and come from a place of lacking superiority. And yet not a single point I’ve made has been refuted. No, I’m just superior and have the ego to acknowledge that and the literary capacity to do it with airs.
You’ve also mistaken being empathetic with sympathetic and I’ve explained why I’m not the latter in several other messages imuding the one you just replied to. How can I not feel superior when every respondant has the reading comprehension of a 6 year old.
No thoughts are “your own.”
You are owned by your thoughts.
If you believe that try not having them.
You can’t not have them. Because they have you. They are in control.
You lack an adequate understanding of the concept of belligerence.
You can’t not have them because they are you.
They are intrusive thoughts, because that’s the phrase that was coined to describe these types of thoughts. Sometimes we come up with specific phrases in order to describe more specific concepts.
Right, nuance and context are infinitely important. Now what’s the functional difference between the two? Because if none exists that can be implemented by the individual then the nuanced difference between the types of thoughts becomes irrelevant to how one handles them.
I am not emotionally affected by my ‘intrusive thoughts’ because they have as much bearing on reality as whether I like the smell of burnt toast.
The functional difference is:
Thoughts == benign shit passing through your brain that cause no personal discomfort.
Obtrusive thoughts == shit that intrudes on your regular internal monologue and causes discomfort or fixation.
It’s fine to have such thoughts, and it’s also fine to acknowledge that you don’t want them. Like I’m trying to get on with my day, but now my brain is playing a vivid horror show and I just want to finish my TPS report, not walk through every moment of myself shattering Steve’s skull with the fire axe because he can’t figure out how to use the collate function on the printer.
Sure, you can embrace that shit as fictional, but it’s distracting in the moment.
Sure, but handling an ‘intrusive thought’ is functionally no different to how you handle any other thought.
I say ‘pink elephants’ you’re going to fixate for a bit, how that affects you emotionally won’t change that functionally for you.
I guess there are degrees of intrusive thoughts, because no, it’s not really the same. ‘Don’t think about the elephant’ causes a benign and very fleeting fixation.
Intrusive thoughts are things that linger, often in a disturbing way, long after you want them gone. They interfere with your ability to focus.
The elephant thing is like a musical ear worm whereas intrusive thoughts can be like someone blaring industrial music in your ears. I’m not explaining this well, but it’s on another level.
I’m going to copy and paste my reply from another comment thread because it better explains my philosophical stance.
I am not emotionally disturbed by my ‘intrusive thoughts’ because they have as much bearing on reality as whether I like the smell of burnt toast. They are also my thoughts, I take full ownership of them, they aren’t something that happens to me they’re something I do.
I don’t suffer their affliction, I have no personal experience with their incapacities. I don’t let my pain define me, I own my thoughts, and even when I don’t like the things I think, they are mine alone to think about.
I honestly and genuinely wish anyone who is afflicted by their own thoughts can access the tools and skills they need to improve their mental fortitude and improve their lives by learning to tolerate themselves.
Thoughts = literally any thought
Intrusive thoughts = the type of thoughts we don’t particularly want to think because they make us uncomfortable, but they intrude into our stream of consciousness either way.
It’s called being descriptive, and it lets people know exactly what kind of thought you’re referring to by adding a simple adjective before the word.
I think a good term for what you defined in your edit might be “intrusive thoughts”
If everyone has them it’s not a phobia, it’s a condition of consciousness. The phobia is being irrationally afraid of your perfectly normal condition. Which if you think you’re own thoughts are intruding on you, you may have.
Intrusive thoughts are a big part of OCD. And they call them “intrusive thoughts.”
Maybe it’s OCD?
These kind of thoughts are normal, but can develope into a subform of ocd called pure-o ocd
Maybe stop trying to analyse these things or put Buddhism into a box too yeah?
our brains run simulations of awful situations all the time as a diagnostic self-test system. The fact that we recoil in revulsion from destructive intrusive thoughts is a sign that we are still at least nominally sane. Those who yearn for peace prepare for war. Likewise, those who care for their loved ones prepare to face terrible events that might befall them.
“why yes indeed brain, it would fucking suck if i jumped off this cliff, thank you for verifying that even if i had no plans of doing so anyways…”
I’m the guy who thinks it would be great… for 3 seconds anyway.
It would be great for a few seconds and then it wouldn’t matter anymore. Win win
That rather depends on the height I would think.
That’s why I hate Ferris wheels. Every time.
Now imagine riding one with your wife and TWO CHILDREN.
NEVER. FUCKING. AGAIN.
(Disclaimer: nothing happened, but the fucking horror and constant stress. That’s the kind of shit I have no problem doing by myself or with my wife only.)
Wat da fuk
These urges are what the Chao garden in sonic adventure was made for.
Damn chao garden… now that’s some good nostalgia
The call of the void. I think?
Seems similar enough. I thought it was more for random suicidal thoughts than ending someone else.
It gets used for all of that but I think it’s also more literally the feeling you get standing near a tall edge and picturing what it’d be like to jump. Translated from the French “l’appel du vide” I believe. I have it very strong, all the forms…
I have these kinds of thought all the time lol
Here, have some of mine!
THEY LOCKEDNME IN A RUBBER ROIM A TUBBER RUUNE WIV RATS AND THE RATS RJRNT MAKE ME FRCRAXT THEY LOCKEDNME IN A RUBBER ROIM A TUBBER RUUNE WIV RATS AND THE RATS RJRNT MAKE ME FRCRAXT THEY LOCKEDNME IN A RUBBER ROIM A TUBBER RUUNE WIV RATS AND THE RATS RJRNT MAKE ME FRCRAXT THEY LOCKEDNME IN A RUBBER ROIM A TUBBER RUUNE WIV RATS AND THE RATS RJRNT MAKE ME FRCRAXT THEY LOCKEDNME IN A RUBBER ROIM A TUBBER RUUNE WIV RATS AND THE RATS RJRNT MAKE ME FRCRAXT THEY LOCKED ME INNA RUBBER ROOM A RUBBER ROOM WIV RATS AND THE RATS DIDNT MAKE MW CRAZY THEY LOCKEDNME IN A RUBBER ROIM A TUBBER RUUNE WIV RATS AND THE RATS RJRNT MAKE ME FRCRAXT THEY LOCKED ME INNA RUBBER ROOM A RUBBER ROOM WIV RATS AND THE RATS DIDNT MAKE MW CRAZY THEY LOCKEDNME IN A RUBBER ROIM A TUBBER RUUNE WIV RATS AND THE RATS RJRNT MAKE ME FRCRAXT THEY LOCKED ME INNA RUBBER ROOM A RUBBER ROOM WIV RATS AND THE RATS DIDNT MAKE MW CRAZY THEY LOCKEDNME IN A RUBBER ROIM A TUBBER RUUNE WIV RATS AND THE RATS RJRNT MAKE ME FRCRAXT THEY LOCKED ME INNA RUBBER ROOM A RUBBER ROOM WIV RATS AND THE RATS DIDNT MAKE MW CRAZY THEY LOCKEDNME IN A RUBBER ROIM A TUBBER RUUNE WIV RATS AND THE RATS RJRNT MAKE ME FRCRAXT THEY LOCKED ME INNA RUBBER ROOM A RUBBER ROOM WIV RATS AND THE RATS DIDNT MAKE MW CRAZY THEY LOCKEDNME IN A RUBBER ROIM A TUBBER RUUNE WIV RATS AND THE RATS RJRNT MAKE ME FRCRAXT THEY LOCKED ME INNA RUBBER ROOM A RUBBER ROOM WIV RATS AND THE RATS DIDNT MAKE MW CRAZY
We all do, intrusive thoughts and “call of the void” are basically your brain doing hypothetical situations to get better at prediction and other brain things (or at least that was the hypothesis last time I read about it)
Borderline c/LemmyBeWholesome
Is so wholsum
Shin Sekai Yori is an light novel / anime about what happens when these thoughts have power and how a society might develop to control the destructive consequences of said thoughts.
Big Saturn energy
If the devil whispers in your ear just don’t listen
Or in the case of Disturbed, make it into a music video to try and help others.
Someone learned about intrusive thoughts.
Intrusive thoughts like that must be human nature. I doubt there is a single person who has never had a single thought about something like that.
Am I the only one who doesn’t do this?
Are you trying to say you’ve not experienced intrusive thoughts?
for me at least intrusive thoughts are basically equivalent to someone just saying it to me, and my response is simply “well, why would i do that? stop being dumb”
Yes, you’re the only one in the world. The chose one. The boy who survived.
You opted to throw the baby against the wall?
Who doesn’t do this every once in a while. Just a bit of tomfoolery
One of the very few at least. Around 90% of people have these kind of thoughts from time to time.
Lol my mom and I have OCD. She’s got a bit of this type, fortunately mine is a bit more of the I really really love filing and collecting things (data hoarding) borderline autistic type.
YEET
