People who check whether their hands are clean or imagine their house might be on fire are not alone. New global research shows that 94 percent of people experience unwanted, intrusive thoughts, images and/or impulses.
More than six million Americans are estimated to be affected by intrusive thoughts, according to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
"The phrase “intrusive thoughts” seems to be having a moment—that is, on TikTok, at least. The hashtag #intrusivethoughts has amassed over 830 million views, and research corroborates the growing interest in the phrase as over 90% of people experience intrusive thoughts.
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.
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).
Concerns about contamination — or germs — are common intrusive thoughts. This could mean worrying about getting sick or spreading illness even when the risk is low. These intrusive thoughts can lead to obsessive concerns about your health and result in behaviors like excessive handwashing or avoiding other people.
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.
(Purdon and Clark 2005)” Urges that come with OCD are not pleasurable. Acting on urges may go against your values and go against what you enjoy doing. This makes it far less likely that you would act on an urge.
Ultimately, the thoughts, images and urges associated with harm OCD are insignificant and do not reflect on character. In fact, a closer look suggests that people with harm OCD are quite unlikely to act on these thoughts.
What Age Do Intrusive Thoughts Start? Unwanted thoughts that elicit anxiety can appear at any age but often begin between ages 8 to 12 and in between the late teen years and early adulthood. Some have been as early as 5-years-old when diagnosed with compulsive thinking.
Symptoms fluctuate in severity from time to time, and this fluctuation may be related to the occurrence of stressful events. Because symptoms usually worsen with age, people may have difficulty remembering when OCD began, but can sometimes recall when they first noticed that the symptoms were disrupting their lives.
ADHDers—people with ADHD—can also experience intrusive thoughts that are repetitive, distressing, or just flat-out strange. It's not uncommon to have intrusive thoughts, but frequently experiencing them may be a symptom of your ADHD (if you have ADHD) or possibly something else.
POCD, also known as pedophile obsessive-compulsive disorder, is a type of OCD that involves havingobsessions—or intrusive thoughts—that are focused on fears about being or becoming a pedophile. These obsessions trigger immense anxiety, distress, and disruptions in a person's life.
Loosely defined, the fear of acting out obsessive thoughts in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) means the fear of making unwanted behavioral decisions either against one's own will or in a state of uncontrolled madness.
Fact: People do not want to act on their intrusive thoughts
According to the ADAA, the opposite is true. The most dangerous myth surrounding intrusive thoughts is that they might lead to action. People experiencing these thoughts typically work hard to fight them, which results in the thoughts becoming persistent.
Pure O stands for 'purely obsessional'. People sometimes use this phrase to describe a type of OCD where they experience distressing intrusive thoughts but there are no external signs of compulsions (for example checking or washing). The name is slightly misleading as it suggests that there are no compulsions at all.
Active “ignoring” can trigger an additional sense of being in denial (and thus more anxiety). It can quickly devolve into a habit of “white-knuckling” through life, which is unsustainable.
People often want to know why unwanted intrusive thoughts have such terrible content. Common ones include: harming a loved one, impulsively killing oneself, a sudden weird doubt about sexual orientation or identity, blasphemy, sexual abuse of all variations, turning into a mass shooter.
Everyone has thoughts that are upsetting or strange, and that do not make a lot of sense, from time to time. This is normal. In fact several well-conducted studies have discovered that close to 100% of the general population has intrusive and disturbing thoughts, images or ideas.
If you're experiencing unwanted thoughts about losing your mind, becoming psychotic, or developing schizophrenia, it may be a sign of schizophrenia OCD. You might find yourself constantly questioning the state of your mind, which can cause you to be overly focused on feeling different than usual.
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.
Trying to suppress an intrusive, unwanted thought can cause it to rebound, or reoccur. This happens because, while an initial thought can occur automatically and without any mental effort, trying to suppress it is a controlled, conscious process that requires mental resources.
Left untreated, the recurring thoughts and urges of OCD can interfere with your thinking and decrease concentration and short-term memory. Intense compulsions can drain your physical and mental energy and consume valuable time.