Intrusive thoughts
Intrusive thoughts
You would think it would make me feel better to know that every person has intrusive thoughts. But it doesn't at all, quite the opposite.
Yall are as crazy as I am, we are doomed.
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I am not tempted by my intrusive thoughts, personally. Never understood the "intrusive thoughts won" meme. :P
You’ve never been near a ledge and thought, "what if I jumped?"
Never thought about dipping a finger in the blender or light socket?
Never thought of or touched something that you knew was way too hot?
Yes. All the time, and worse options besides. But there's no temptation to do those things. It`s more like I'm being reminded that those are options, that nothing besides my own will -- and the fact that I am in control of my body -- prevents me from doing them. It's scary. I hate it.
The part I don't get is the idea that other people claim to have voices urging them to do these things.
Do you have an inner monologue? Some people don’t and that’s okay but a lot of people do have a "voice" for their conscious thoughts.
But the other thing you described is intrusive thoughts. We think, "This is a thing I could do" and we mostly don’t do them bc we think about the consequences and our inhibitions kick in.
Yes, I have inner monologue. And yes I know what I am describing is intrusive thoughts.
I think if you're hearing actual voices urging you to do things that's a condition that should be addressed, that's not normal.
I am not hearing voices urging me to do things, don't worry :P
The call of the void. Super common and pretty interesting.
And it's always calling…
The people making these jokes don't understand actual intrusive thoughts.
Intrusive thoughts are unwanted, involuntary thoughts, images, or ideas that can be distressing or upsetting. They can also be called interfering thoughts. These thoughts can occur spontaneously or be triggered by internal or external stimuli. They can be strange, aggressive, or sexual.
The act shown in the picture is certainly an intrusive thought.
The act in the picture isn't a thought at all. It's the result of someone deciding to do something destructive to see the result. I can't imagine the thought "what if I stuck my soldering iron in the side of my solder spool" was that unwanted, distressing or upsetting, either. After all, OP decided to do it.
Doing it or not doing it doesn't change the type of thought it is, based on the definition. I reality we will never know, this could have been and most likely was planned. But assuming they didn't want to waste money and destroy a roll of solder, the thought could have been intrusive then acted on. The possibility is there.
In my understanding, intrusive thoughts is something like this: you`re walking along the street and pass a woman pushing a pram, and a thought pops up reminding you that you could kick it into the traffic if you wanted, and here's all the consequences. And because you're not a psycho you reel at the idea, wanting to smack your head for even imagining it. But there is no temptation, no urging. The thought cannot "win" because it is not trying to get you to do it, it's just an imagined possible scenario.
This is something different from having an impulse, which is something you could act upon as you describe. Or, I suppose, it is indeed to just decide to do something from your intrusive thoughts, but that seems unlikely because a key part of the definition of "intrusive thought" is that the thought must be unwelcome and/or distressing.
Yes but in your description of an intrusive thought you could still act on it, you just don't. But I'm sure there are people who at some point have.
I think your last sentence is close to where I sit. In my mind there is plenty of room for overlap between the two. You can have an intrusive thought with out without the impulse to do it. Yes it is distressing, but part of the intrusive thought is that sense of morbid wonder that I have to believe some people have acted on.
Also I'm no psychological expert or anything, I could be way off, it's just my take.
You also don't act on intrusive thoughts. This meme demonstrates an impulsive thought, not an intrusive one.
I doubt anyone wants to waste a whole roll of solder. It's an unwanted action that they had a thought about. That's the intrusive thought, they then just acted on it.
An intrusive thought is the thought, acting on it or not is separate.
I have to assume so. Mine are very much not welcome or tempting in the slightest.
Same. Which is why it's intrusive. But I guess it's cute for people to make light of others distressing neurological symptoms 🤷♂️
Yeah we`re both getting downvoted for this, it seems.
Because people literally don't understand impulsive vs intrusive thoughts. I'm sticking to my guns on this one. The hive mind is wrong.
In my mind the two don't have to be entirely separate even, there can be some overlap.