What are intrusive thoughts?

What exactly is an intrusive thought?

Intrusive thoughts are thoughts that come into your head unexpectedly and refuse to leave, those little nagging thoughts that persist on ruining your day, often bringing you down and making you feel unworthy.

An intrusive thought is a thought that is not wanted and serves no purpose but to make you feel bad about yourself or make you feel a sense of panic and upset.

So why do they occur?

A lot of people will suffer from these types of thoughts and often dwell on them causing a lot of anxiety and upset to the point people can maybe make rash decisions. These often unwanted thoughts can range from anything that plays on your subconscious mind from a partner cheating to worries about your health and body. It often feels like these thoughts cannot be managed as they seem to spring out of nowhere and at the most inconvenient of times, for example you could feel happy and having a wonderful time on a new date then all out of the blue your mind is racing with thoughts of that person looking at another or wanting another, to them being on the date through pity.

Intrusive thoughts are not rational and can often be hard to rationalize with, turning your mind into a battle between the irrational thought and the rational part of your brain trying reassure yourself. This endless battle is often tiring and very upsetting.

There are many things you can try to reduce irrational thoughts from occurring though the first step if you are suffering these is to visit your GP or Doctor, it is always good to get support.

Another symptom of intrusive thinking is irrational thinking and it is often hard for others to understand why you’re thinking this way and how to reason with your thought process either way you are not going mad and you are not alone.

It can be hard to open up about these thoughts to close family and friends when you know that there is no reason for these thoughts to be entering your mind, here at Agony Aunt we can help to uncover what is triggering these intrusive thoughts and how to deal with them the best way you can.

It is important to remember that these thoughts are very common though some people are better at brushing them off than others who may obsess over them this is common with people who also suffer obsessive thinking and intrusive thoughts linger more prominently with people who suffer with obsessive thinking. Either way it is not something to feel ashamed of or estranged about and is more often than not an emotional link to a past situation. The subconscious mind is very good at storing memories and experiences that impact us the most and these can leak out through intrusive thoughts even if we feel we have moved on and healed from a situation.

If you need some support with talking things through and feel you can’t talk about things with family or friends we here at Agony Aunt are more than happy to support you, just click on one of our Agony Aunts or Uncles for more support or Download Agony Aunts iPhone app to instantly chat.