In post-traumatic stress disorder, for example, it’s quite common to experience intrusive thoughts about the traumatic event for months or even years after the event itself. All kinds of thoughts pop into our minds throughout the day, so the fact that occasionally there are frightening or disturbing ones isn’t surprising statistically.Īlthough intrusive thoughts don’t typically have a specific cause or origin, they can result specifically from trauma. Consequently, most modern psychotherapeutic approaches, such as cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) – to which I personally subscribe – consider that the initial cause of intrusive thoughts is often simply random or unknown. Some traditional psychological theories have suggested that intrusive thoughts represent unconscious desires or wishes, however no evidence supports this claim. Studies suggest that more than 90 per cent of people experience them at some point, and common themes include aggression, contamination and sexually inappropriate behaviour. Unwanted intrusive thoughts are quite common. And while they are often beneficial or mundane, they can sometimes seem scary or even disturbing, in which case psychologists refer to them as unwanted intrusive thoughts. These are intrusive thoughts – thoughts that happen without our consent or effort. If you have ever suddenly remembered a meeting or appointment you’d forgotten about, you know that thoughts can come about without your conscious intention or control. Some thoughts simply show up in consciousness. But not all thoughts are under our direct control. Often our thoughts are under conscious control, meaning that we initiate them and direct them to some extent: if you notice that you’re hungry, you might think about the closest place to find food. We all have many thoughts throughout the day – ideas, beliefs, stories, plans or images that run through our minds. And most importantly, she was able to be with her daughter and enjoy their early days together without the constant dread that she might do something awful. By learning to respond to them as disturbing but not dangerous, both the frequency and intensity of Jasmine’s intrusive thoughts diminished significantly. Over the course of several months, I worked with Jasmine to change the way that she thought about and reacted to her unwanted intrusive thoughts. I explained that what she was experiencing were unwanted intrusive thoughts, and that they were a symptom of anxiety, not delusions or psychopathy. And in fact, I thought it would be fine if she went home right now and held her daughter all by herself. I also told her that I didn’t think there was any risk she would actually harm her daughter. Thankfully, after a handful more questions, I was able to tell Jasmine confidently that I didn’t think she was either losing her mind or a psychopath. And she was all but certain that she was either losing her mind or secretly some kind of violent psychopath. My client went on to describe how more and more thoughts like the one of her strangling her daughter had been popping into her head recently. ‘I don’t want to hurt her,’ she explained, ‘but I’m scared this means I secretly want to… I haven’t let myself be alone with her for the past 48 hours because I don’t want to take the chance.’ She explained that, only a day or two after arriving home from the hospital after giving birth, a disturbing thought had popped into her mind one evening while she was changing her daughter’s diaper: If I just put my hands around her throat and squeeze, she’d be dead almost instantly… Jasmine was distraught at the idea that she was going to do something terrible to her new daughter. ![]() Jasmine came to see me in therapy because she was worried that she was going to kill her newborn daughter.
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