Intrusive thoughts are more natural and common than you would imagine. It is a perception that intrusive thoughts are rare and only bother those who are obsessed about something. Intrusive thoughts are often correlated to obsessive compulsive disorders but they are not the same thing. Also, it doesn’t take one to be obsessed about something or to suffer from obsessive compulsive disorder to have intrusive thoughts. Despite the many similarities, there is a huge technical and practical difference between obsessive compulsive disorders and intrusive thoughts.
Before you can deal with OCD intrusive thoughts, you need to understand what they are.
What Are Intrusive Thoughts?
Intrusive thoughts are ideas, visions, images or perceptions that are not in control of your conscious mind. In other words, intrusive thoughts are involuntary. They don’t need your conscious participation. Intrusive thoughts can occur subconsciously or unconsciously. The latter occurs when there is absolutely no control of a person on the thoughts and the former occurs when a passive thought or the subconscious mind propels the intrusive thought.
Intrusive thoughts are mostly unpleasant. However, they can be pleasant at times. The pleasant ones are not usually regarded as intrusive thoughts because they are not dangerous, not threatening and they don’t give birth to anxiety, panic and discomfort.
When Do Intrusive Thoughts Become Obsessions?
Intrusive thoughts can lead to obsessions or obsessive compulsive disorders. That is when they can be called OCD intrusive thoughts, not before that. Intrusive thoughts do not always lead to obsessions. If you are experiencing an intrusive thought that doesn’t stay for a very long time, if it happens only for a few fleeting moments and you don’t have recurrence of that thought, then it is just an intrusive thought that happened and it is no longer existent. When your intrusive thoughts remain in your mind and they consistently bother you over a long period of time, it is only then that they can lead to obsessions. Obsessive compulsive disorder or OCD is the ultimate stage of intrusive thoughts.
There comes a time when intrusive thoughts get a complete hold of an individual. At that time, the person’s mind is unable to be in control. The mind is even incapable of distracting itself from the intrusive thoughts and all pleasant thoughts or voluntary thoughts become overpowered by the negative thoughts, fears and panic-stricken thinking. In such circumstances, a person will develop obsessive compulsive disorder and will show all the symptoms associated with the type of OCD it is.
Such OCD intrusive thoughts can affect the mind, psyche and personality. There can be, subsequently, a number of different psychological and personality disorders.
How To Deal With OCD Intrusive Thoughts?
There are many ways to deal with OCD intrusive thoughts. The most obvious approach is to consult a therapist or a counselor and get advised on the future course of action. But it isn’t always that you will need someone or professional intervention to deal with OCD intrusive thoughts. It is necessary to mention again that the involuntary negative thinking or intrusive thoughts are not always the causal factors of OCD and thus they can be dealt with before things become severe or out of control.
Here is a comprehensive guide on what you should be doing and on how to deal with OCD intrusive thoughts.
First, you must acknowledge that you have OCD intrusive thoughts. People react differently to OCD intrusive thoughts when they occur. Some people are pretty pragmatic in their approach; they acknowledge the thoughts immediately and are mentally strong enough to avoid those thoughts. They don’t give importance to these thoughts and thus they are never bothered, anxious or in any discomfort. But not everyone can avoid those intrusive thoughts with as much ease. Most people will get very worked up at the onset of such thoughts. That is where denial sets in and one doesn’t realize what to do. If you are unable to acknowledge the thoughts in the first place, then you cannot deal with them.
To acknowledge OCD intrusive thoughts, you need to first understand them. OCD intrusive thoughts occur when your brain gives in to your fears. You will notice that most OCD intrusive thoughts have to do with aspects that you don’t usually think of or what you are afraid of. It is the unknown fears or the conscious fears of a person that propel the OCD intrusive thoughts. A person who is obsessed about cleanliness is not exactly the staunchest endorser of cleanliness. It is the fear of dirt, unwanted particles and possibly microbes, microorganisms and other undesirable materials that the person is worried about. It is this fear psychosis that leads to the obsession with cleanliness. Thus, the OCD pertains to cleanliness but the intrusive thoughts pertain to what can happen if things or places are not clean. Since the person is naturally averse to the undesirable elements, the brain naturally triggers a panic or fear when such intrusive thoughts happen and that gives importance to the thoughts. As a result, the intrusive thoughts keep on recurring and they will remain till the time one becomes obsessed with it. At that stage, the OCD intrusive thoughts become an obsessive compulsive disorder. In light of this, one must acknowledge the fear first. Since acknowledging the intrusive thoughts is difficult, acknowledging and accepting the fear will make the brain aware that the intrusive thought doesn’t need so much importance. As the thought begins to become less important, it will become less troubling and over time, it will cease to exist. Also, in this process, the intrusive thoughts will never worsen to become an OCD.
The best way to deal with intrusive thoughts is to face them upfront. Taking the example of obsessions pertaining to cleanliness again, one should actually do contrary to what the thoughts propagate. Instead of cleaning everything time and again and obsessing about it or worrying about unclean settings, one should allow things to remain as they are. One should not clean anything. Everything should be messed up and one should wait to see what happens. When normal dirt, messed up clothes, piled up stuffs and an unorganized setting will pose no dangers to the person, the person will realize that the fear is unfounded. Naturally, the brain will know that the OCD intrusive thoughts cannot instill any more fear and is thus not deserving of any importance. Gradually, the very seed of the OCD intrusive thoughts which is the fear will be done away with. Obviously, the OCD intrusive thoughts will also cease to exist over time.
One must bear in mind that intrusive thoughts pertain to everything that one is scared of or what one is not. Everything that a person is will never have any intrusive thoughts related to those. It is what a person avoids, wants to avoid, is afraid of or is not by their very nature, character or mindset that will manifest itself as intrusive thoughts. Hence, one should not give in to a belief that OCD intrusive thoughts are a part of them. It is this thought that leads to OCDs since the person becomes what one is not.