The good news is many intrusive thoughts can be considered normal and pass through a person's mind without leaving an imprint. However, Dr. Edwards says some intrusive thoughts may begin to stick in people's minds and bother them. They may ruminate on the idea and start to feel anxious.
They're usually harmless. But if you obsess about them so much that it interrupts your day-to-day life, this can be a sign of an underlying mental health problem. Intrusive thoughts can be a symptom of anxiety, depression, or obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).
They are predominantly associated with Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, but they are often seen amongst the symptoms of other anxiety disorders. Common themes of intrusive thoughts include (but are not limited to): harm/violence, sexuality/sexual behaviors, religion, and making mistakes/causing accidents.
On average, people have about 6,200 thoughts each day. Inevitably, some will be unwanted, alarming, or just plain strange. You know the kind: You're driving down the freeway and suddenly visualize yanking the steering wheel to the left and careening into a ravine.
Anxiety can be so overwhelming to the brain it alters a person's sense of reality. People experience distorted reality in several ways. Distorted reality is most common during panic attacks, though may occur with other types of anxiety. It is also often referred to as “derealization.”
People who find that intrusive thoughts are exacerbating mental conditions like depression, anxiety and OCD should seek professional help — as should those who are unable to undertake daily tasks or sustain relationships because of intrusive thoughts.
While most people associate ADHD with hyperactivity and impulsivity, it can also manifest in more subtle ways, such as through intrusive thoughts and overthinking. Intrusive thoughts are unwanted and repetitive thoughts that can be distressing or disturbing.
OCD is a common, long-lasting disorder characterized by uncontrollable, recurring thoughts (obsessions) that can lead people to engage in repetitive behaviors (compulsions). Although everyone worries or feels the need to double-check things on occasion, the symptoms associated with OCD are severe and persistent.
If you only have periodic intrusive thoughts and have no urge to act on them, this is completely normal. As long as you're not obsessing about the thought – and feeling bad and guilty for thinking it – chances are that you're totally fine.
Intrusive thoughts don't make you a bad person and they most certainly don't reflect your character. If you believe intrusive thoughts could be affecting your ability to lead a normal life, contact a local psychologist to start on your personal path toward healing.
Study after study after study has shown that almost everyone has intrusive thoughts from time to time. Random, unwanted, disturbing thoughts are actually the norm, and almost everybody has intrusive thoughts at some time. Healthy people, average people, anxious people, calm people, people with OCD — they all have them.
These thoughts are usually unwanted, unpleasant or even painful. Intrusive thoughts are often repetitive in nature and usually come in the form of mental images or statements said to yourself. These thoughts are normal and most of the time, they come and go without causing us much distress.
01 Intrusive thoughts are caused by misfired signals in the amygdala. 02 According to Dr. Phillipson, intrusive thoughts are a mental disorder, not a mental illness.
With ADHD, that part of the brain is always turned on, which causes the endless look of intrusive thoughts to replay in your head like a bad song. In short, when you have ADHD and your Default Mode Network region is wired neurodivergent, it makes your mind wander on a continuous loop.
This means ADHD and overthinking kind of go hand in hand. The ADHD brain grasps hold of your thoughts and runs away with them, while emotions keep the engine running. Thinking of a project due tomorrow turns into worrying about a project due tomorrow, which turns into reviewing everything wrong you've ever done…
Mind Control
A difficulty with or an inability to break free from intrusive and unwanted thoughts are a reality both for neurotypical people and also for those with various types of mental illness.
Intrusive thoughts don't typically result in any kind of behavior done to reduce the anxiety they cause or prevent some bad event associated with them from occurring. People with OCD, however, are likely to respond to obsessions by performing compulsions.
And if your intrusive thoughts are related to a mental health condition, they will likely last as long as you have symptoms. In some cases, fear- or trauma-related intrusive thoughts may never go away completely. But with treatment, you can learn to manage them so they cause much less distress.
The possibility that most patients with intrusive thoughts will ever act on those thoughts is low. Patients who are experiencing intense guilt, anxiety, shame, and are upset over these thoughts are very different from those who actually act on them.
Intrusive thoughts are often triggered by stress or anxiety. They may also be a short-term problem brought on by biological factors, such as hormone shifts. For example, a woman might experience an uptick in intrusive thoughts after the birth of a child.
It plays off our desire for certainty so no matter what theme it presents itself as, it can take hold of even the smallest glimmer of uncertainty. Because of this, the potential consequence of these intrusive thoughts becoming a reality petrifies us.
The anxious mind will have you believing things about yourself, your circumstances, and your future that are just not true. Anxiety lies. Plain and simple. Once you can acknowledge that your mind plays tricks, you'll be able to get back in the driver's seat and regain a sense of control of yourself and your life.