at least, I think that's what they're called. but I hate them. like I'll just be walking down a school hallway and suddenly "hey what if you jumped out that window??" and of course I'm like "what? no" because I'm not feeling actively suicidal at the moment, but it freaking sucks because then it gets me all down and I get anxious and start wondering like, hey, what if I did jump out that window? what would happen? I would die or something equally bad, obviously, because we're six floors up and I'd land probably painfully on cement, but then what? would people miss me? like, what if I did follow through on that thought? and then I get all anxious and freaked out. or like those thoughts where it's just suddenly like "hey what if you stabbed your best friend with that knife right there??" and I'm like "?????" because of course I wouldn't do that but then I get all anxious about what if I did do that? and I don't know. they're frustrating. and like I imagine everyone experiences these? am I right in thinking this? does anyone else experience these or have any advice on dealing with them?
i would say probably everyone experiences intrusive thoughts. you know what an earworm is? a song that gets stuck in your head for days no matter how much you try to forget it? that's a manner of intrusive thoughts. brains aren't really all that logical when it comes down to it, we're lateral and not literal (step-by-step) thinkers, so i believe that the process may have been evolutionarily beneficial, to have those sudden flashes of insights that feel like they didn't come from you. people having brainweird have darker flavors to their intrusive thoughts. instead of being able to let them go, the brain takes it and puts it on the record player and keeps the needle in that specific groove, even (especially?) when you don't want it there. ocd is probably the most pertinent example, but it also happens with thoughts of harm to self or others. hell, even healthy minds under stress will have thoughts like "but what if i just walked in front of that bus." if you want advice, here's mine: treat them like the intrusive, non-belonging assholes they are. have you heard of the timothy metaphor? imagine your body is a car, and you/your brain is the driver. you are driving around an obnoxious seven-year-old in the backseat. he doesn't have his seatbelt on, he keeps smashing his face up against the window, and he yells out completely random things that sound like horrible ideas. that's your intrusive thoughts. the trick is to learn to say "shut the fuck up, timothy." now, timothy's not going to listen at first, because he's seven and he doesn't understand. he's going to have a temper tantrum. (maybe we could even call it an extinction burst?) he's going to throw you more. because timothy is an asshole. but the more you tell timothy to shut the fuck up, the more you can recognize when it's timothy (the intrusive thoughts) speaking, not you. and the further you go into banning him from talking, or at least keep him from talking about really dangerous shit.
yeah, I figured everyone experienced intrusive thoughts to some degree. I've never heard of the timothy metaphor, but that's a really good one. thanks.
Apparently those kind of thoughts are quite a normal expression of your brain's survival instinct. At least that's what I read somewhere once. Can't remember where I read it though...
....okay if so that's really really weird and interesting because "hey you should jump out that window!" does not seem like an expression of survival instinct
No, but it makes you think of the consequences I think. You're like: hell no! I would smash to bits, I am not going to do that
that...does kind of make sense. I mean, my general response to "hey jump out the window" is usually "wtf why no" so I guess that's a good thing? it's still interesting to me the weird way our brains do shit like that--I mean, intrusive thoughts being a normal expression of survival instinct is not what I would have expected.
I mean, don't pin me down on it, but I think it's what I read somewhere. Will be able to form more coherent thoughts in the morning XD
Yeah everyone seems to experience these to some degree though so do more so than others. My OCD is mostly hell from the intrusive thoughts. Just ever present bastards who have managed to fuck up my life more than once. I've come to deal with them by basically Buddhisting them into submission. So noting that it is a thought and what it is. Pointing out the ridiculousness of it and then just trying to continue about my day.
