People who struggle with self-esteem might find that intrusive thoughts reinforce their negative narratives about themselves. Intrusive thoughts can occur with or without an accompanying mental health condition.
#Intrusive thoughts professional#
“But if they’re becoming so persistent that they’re troubling you most of the time, you should talk to a professional about it.” “If intrusive thoughts are random, fleeting, and out of context, there’s a low risk that they’re an indication of a problem,” Cohen says. One of the first things therapists do with patients who are concerned, therefore, is to reassure them that intrusive thoughts are normal and unlikely to be revealing of a repressed desire. “The person is disturbed that their brain even generated the thought.” “They’re not necessarily suicidal or even depressed, but sometimes even a fleeting thought can cause a lot of distress, just because it seems so strange,” he says. Ziv Cohen, MD, a forensic and clinical psychiatrist and an assistant professor at Weill Cornell Medical School and adjunct faculty at Columbia University in New York City. Some of the thoughts our brains spit out at us, much like dreams, can be random and weird but aren’t indicative of a true or deep-seated desire.įor example, it isn’t unusual for people to be standing on a subway platform and suddenly think, Gee, I could jump in front of the train right now, says Dr. In any given moment, our brains whizz around constantly trying to handle myriad tasks in addition to what we’re trying to intentionally think about, Kissen says. What it really boils down to, however, Marks says, is your reaction to intrusive thoughts and how you behave because of them. “Those thoughts can come into your awareness in a way that’s disturbing and distressing for you, or you may have trouble not focusing on them.” “The difference is that fleeting intrusive thoughts are not necessarily that ‘sticky,’ like a helmet of thoughts you can’t take off,” she says. It can be problematic, however, if someone is unable to filter out the thoughts and focus on what they want and need to do. Fleeting intrusive thoughts that come and go and don’t pop up again and again - no matter how messed up they are - don’t necessarily signal a psychological problem. At the other end of the spectrum are thoughts that are violent, inappropriately sexual, or otherwise disturbing.Īnyone can have such thoughts pop into their mind when they're trying to focus on something else, says forensic psychiatrist Tracey Marks, MD, author of Why Am I So Anxious?: Powerful Tools for Recognizing Anxiety and Restoring Your Peace. Imagining the alarming scenario of your child being hit by a car can trigger you to remind her to look both ways before crossing the street. They can be benign or helpful, prompting you to double-check that the stove is off.
#Intrusive thoughts free#
The reality is that “intrusive thoughts” - unwanted thoughts that are often disturbing or embarrassing - happen to almost everyone, says Debra Kissen, Ph.D, a cognitive behavior therapist specializing in anxiety and author of Break Free From Intrusive Thoughts: An Evidence-Based Guide for Managing Fear and Finding Peace.
Some might wonder if the disturbing thoughts mean there’s something wrong with them, or that the dark scenario they just imagined must be what they really want to do, deep down, because otherwise, why would they even think it? When people experience intrusive thoughts, they often feel so ashamed that they don’t even tell therapists about them, let alone their partners or friends. Disturbing, intrusive thoughts are more common than you realize. Ever walked near a cliff and thought, what if I just jumped right now? Or have you ever had a random, uncomfortable past memory or strange, dark scenario slide into your brain seemingly out of nowhere? You’re certainly not alone if you’ve experienced something similar.
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