I read somewhere that for some people they also get better with age.
And for me that was true. My intrusive thoughts were worse as a teen and twenty something than now.
Then as I matured I relaxed, and also got proof from my own past behavior that I don’t act on any of it, which made me relax more.
The line between good and evil cuts thru the heart of of us all.
If anyone’s having thoughts like this; it’s completely normal. Rest assured, I have thoughts like this multiple times a day, and I don’t even have a newborn.
I mean who hasn’t thought of a baby in the blender at least once, right?
Nothing changed my perspective on intrusive thoughts like learning they are directly related to mental exhaustion. If you notice them, you need mental rest.
Sleep is helpful but just not doing anything for a little while is helpful too. Sitting around staring into space or looking our a window, no TV, no phone, no book, no shampoo bottle instructions; rawdog reality. Not for super long, 2 or 5 minutes is enough, don’t need to push thoughts away or think of nothing or meditate if that’s not your thing. Just try doing nothing at all for a little bit, let your brain rest.
Just try doing nothing at all for a little bit, let your brain rest.
Make up your mind. My ADHD and anxiety-ridden thought processes are at their MOST hyperactive, self-referential and -blaming when I try to do nothing.
Trying to do nothing with no distractions is just about the most stressful thing you can do to some atypical neuros.
I get you, I also have raging ADHD.
The point is -not- to not think, you can think as much as you want about whatever you want. This is NOT meditation
Just don’t be doing or watching something for a few minutes. Listen to silence. Not for a long time, just a couple of minutes is enough.
whenever someone suggest to me that I should “focus on my breathing” it has always had that same effect to me as the meme that goes along the lines of “you suddenly realize that your tongue has never truly had a comfortable place to rest in your mouth”-type of feeling to me during my conscious attempts to control the rate at which I am breathing. esp when there’s someone trying to be a narrator type persona delivering the suggestion, and even more so if I start to feel (for whatever reason) that there is some sort of hope/expectation mixed in with their instruction, that I will be able to safely demonstrate the execution of such a simple yet unfamiliar feat in the moment of suggestion.
That’s just not true. I have intrusive thoughts whether I am rested or not.
I’m sorry mate but I’d be resting 24/7 then. I just kinda let them flow and not act on them
Your brain naturally presents you with thoughts of scenarios that would bring danger or great distress to you or your loved ones. There’s an evolutionary purpose in it that isn’t necessarily a secret or slight desire for it to happen.
And, of course, if you have OCD, the feature is broken and plays like an uncontrollable spam-fucking stream of intrusive thoughts that escalate as you try to dismiss them. Also isn’t an indication of secret desire or anything like that. Just that specific mechanic of your mind being on the fritz due to a lack of serotonin.
Yeah, my wife has particularly severe OCD in that regard and was constantly dealing with either little things that were somehow going to lead to one of our deaths, or that “danger function” presenting her with a veritable buffet of self harm options.
Funnily enough, when she finally found a combination of meds that got her OCD more under control we found out that it had been making pretty bad ADHD her entire life. That was a wild time. Like, it’s not that she didn’t believe me about my own ADHD symptoms, but it hits different when you’re actually experiencing them yourself y’know?
I have a similar problem with OCD, what medications did she find helpful?
Oh she had to go on a bunch. It was like the Max daily doses of both Prozac and Buspar to get it down to only occupying like 4-6 hours of her day, then they added a tiny dose of Abilify and all that’s what finally got it to shut up in all but the worst days.
Gosh that sounds like a bull-ride! Huge relationship tax, too…
Well done riding through it
Not as much as it sounds honestly, to her massive credit. She’s done a lot of work managing it and I work with her trying to keep it manageable. But that’s what partnership is right? She helps me where I struggle, I help her where she struggles.
That’s exactly it! Great team work
I’m 40 now and just recently found out about my intrusive thoughts. I have them from multiple sources, and the ironic thing about that is that the trauma caused by mental disorders can also cause intrusive thoughts. My intrusive thoughts cause themselves, the bastards.
I thought my horrible thoughts just meant I was a horrible person. I had a life-changing moment recently when I watched the comedian Jordan Jensen talk about her OCD on stage. She also has thoughts about harming her pet. I would never actually hurt my cat but the thoughts made me hate myself. Hearing Jordan be that honest about it was like receiving decades of therapy in just a few minutes.
I had a thought like that and it’s so messed up I would literally be scared to share it anywhere because once it’s out there someone might actually do it and then I would feel responsible. But good to know it’s normal.
It’s just your brain warning you about bad things that could happen. Only brains don’t give a pop up notification, it’s just streams of thoughts and sensations. That’s how I’ve chosen to interpret my intrusive thoughts, anyway.
The way it was explained to me -
I’m walking on the roof of a building, carrying my baby. I get the intrusive thought to yeet the baby over the edge. Result - I recognize the horrible thought, causing me to hold the baby tighter and remove us from the roof, thus keeping us both safer.
Call of the void
I always saw it as our minds considering all possibilities.
Yeah it’s one of those "things that separate us from (most) animals. We can ask “what if” and simulate the probable result with a decent amount of accuracy completely internally. It’s a really cool feature if you know what to do with it, it’s just sometimes it runs some really weird simulations “just in case.”
