Ever get sudden unwanted thoughts that scare you or feel yourself obsessing over images that pop up in your mind? You might be experiencing intrusive thoughts.
Four out of five people experience intrusive thoughts and, while they are not uncommon, they can often feel very scary for those who experience them, and they can start to become problematic if they get hard to dismiss.
Mind Charity describes intrusive thoughts as “persistent thoughts, pictures, urges or doubts that appear in your mind again and again”.
Talking about these thoughts can take away some of their power, so we asked the Twitter mental health community to share some of the intrusive thoughts they have experienced.
Here are 19 intrusive thoughts that other people are having;
These thoughts may be difficult to read or triggering for some, so please be mindful when reading this post. While many people experience intrusive thoughts that centre around suicide and self-harm, if you feel like you might be in danger, please reach out to your local mental health team.
- ‘Crashing while I’m driving, how close to death I am and how easy it would be to drive off a bridge.’
- ‘You’re not good enough.’
- ‘I have thoughts about doing something really loud like screaming in public or knocking everything over in the supermarket, just because I can.’
- ‘I worry something bad is going to happen to my child.’
- ‘The most common ones for me are around death and injury. And food. Food is a big one for me.’
- ‘I worry about my cat so much it sometimes makes me cry.’
- ‘The strangest one I have and have had since I was a little kid is throwing something important in the sea or putting it in a drain. Every time I am on a boat or walk past a drain, I want to put my car keys or phone in it or want to throw them into the water.’
- ‘I relive memories that caused me shame.’
- ‘Intrusive images and thoughts of loved ones dying.’
- ‘Every time the train pulls into the platform, I have this sudden urge to jump in front of it even though I’m not suicidal.’
- ‘Always thinking my father was dead. If I heard an ambulance or a fire engine, I would think his house was burning.’
- ‘They mostly come down to worrying that I’m a bad person and should be punished.’
- ‘I deserve pain, loss and rejection.’
- ‘Mostly about bad things happening to my partner and my toddler.’
- ‘Images of self-harm, harm coming to people I love, beliefs that I am ugly or not valuable and urges to break or drop things.’
- ‘How crap I am or how I should hurt myself.’
- ‘I worry people are talking about me or laughing at me.’
- ‘I visualise myself falling down flights of stairs or from heights when I am faced with them.’
- ‘I find myself thinking that I’m a bad person or that all the people I love will abandon me.’
If you are worried about intrusive thoughts and would like to talk, you can call the Samaritans anonymously on 116 123.