If a thought is disturbing and it's something you want to push out of your mind, it might be an intrusive thought. The thought feels hard to control. Intrusive thoughts are often repetitive and won't go away.
Label these thoughts as "intrusive thoughts." Remind yourself that these thoughts are automatic and not up to you.
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).
People who are distressed by recurring, unwanted, and uncontrollable thoughts or who feel driven to repeat specific behaviors may have obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). The thoughts and behaviors that characterize OCD can interfere with daily life, but treatment can help people manage their symptoms.
Intrusive thoughts are often what we call 'ego dystonic': they are the opposite of what we actually want and intend to do. They can be shocking and appalling, but most of us know they mean nothing, and we're able to brush them off.
Obsessing and ruminating are often part of living with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). No matter how hard you try to ignore them, those negative thoughts just keep coming back, replaying themselves in an infinite loop.
A less common subset of OCD, Somatic OCD, is focused on neutral obsessions. Neutral obsessions are ones that involve a thought or image that has no dangerous or negative impact. For instance, harm thoughts are not neutral obsessions because the anxiety is related to a dangerous act.
While both mental health conditions involve repetitive worrying, people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) often engage in unwanted and repetitive behavior in response to their worry. People with anxiety, however, tend to overthink their worry, but don't act in specific responsive manners.
Obsessions in OCD
Common examples include: Fear of coming into contact with perceived contaminated substances, such as germs or dirt. Fear of causing harm to yourself or someone else because you're not careful enough or you're going to act on a violent impulse. Unwanted thoughts or mental images related to sex.
Approach the thought with curiosity
But one thing you can always try to do is reframe the intrusive thought you're having. Consider observing your thoughts without judgment, and approaching them with curiosity by turning your attention to how your body responds to certain thoughts that may arise.
Symptoms of OCD include often include obsessions and unwanted or intrusive thoughts, as well as compulsions, or urges to act out specific — and often repetitive — behaviors. Meanwhile, schizophrenia typically looks like: hallucinations: seeing or hearing things that don't line up with reality.
Thought suppression may lead to a "rebound" effect, where the effort to push a thought away actually causes it to return. 1 Of course, this leads to more thought suppression, which leads to experiencing more distressing thoughts. It can turn into a vicious cycle.
The specific causes of intrusive thoughts can vary from person to person. Some potential causes include: Stress and anxiety: Having intrusive thoughts is typical when you're facing stress and anxiety. If you are going through a tough time, you may notice that you have more intrusive thoughts.
ASD and OCD can sometimes have similar symptoms. However, they are different conditions. Research from 2015 found that 17% of people with ASD also have OCD. This is higher than the percentage of people with OCD in the general population.
Overthinking is caused due to various reasons like fear, intolerance to uncertainty, trauma, or perfectionism. Overthinking can also be a symptom of already existing mental health conditions such as generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety, or depression.
Although anxiety and ADHD may occur together, ADHD is not an anxiety disorder. Sometimes, anxiety can occur independently of ADHD. Other times, it can be as a result of living with ADHD.
Ongoing anxiety or stress, or being part of a stressful event like a car accident or starting a new job, could trigger OCD or make it worse.
People with OCD may have symptoms of obsessions, compulsions, or both. These symptoms can interfere with all aspects of life, such as work, school, and personal relationships. Obsessions are repeated thoughts, urges, or mental images that cause anxiety. Common symptoms include: Fear of germs or contamination.
Trauma, stress, and abuse all can be a cause of OCD getting worse. OCD causes intense urges to complete a task or perform a ritual. For those who have the condition, obsessions and compulsions can begin to rule their life.
Each person with OCD will have a different experience with obsessions, but common thoughts or thought patterns include: Aggressive or disturbing ideas (e.g. thoughts of murdering a spouse or child) Concerns about unwittingly causing injury (e.g. hitting a pedestrian while driving)
People with OCD, however, find their brain regularly generates troubling thoughts. Mistakenly, they believe a thought represents a desire to act. Panicked efforts to avoid and suppress their thought process only make things worse.