Sometimes you may find yourself having unsolicited thoughts or imagining obscene or distressing scenes that seem to help the mind cope with something annoying or painful that can’t be helped. They can serve as a workaround to get out of the trap, or as a fantasy to help you feel less hopeless. These thoughts may interfere with the necessary concentration, but the reason for which they arose, at least initially, was acceptable.
Revenge
Here is an example of acceptable thoughts that turned uninvited and Intrusive when they were viewed as dangerous or negative.
Every time my boss shows up at my office door, I feel like I’m going to yell at him for what he said to me last week. Of course, I would never do that, but yesterday I started imagining flattening the tires of his car in the Parking lot. And then I asked myself what would happen if one day I lost control and did this.
Bereavement
Images of the dead and thoughts about them are not necessarily unsolicited. However, if you are trying to cope with your loss and move on with your life, or if you are worried that your grief is becoming unhealthy, then the real struggle begins.
When I go to bed, I see my mother’s face as I remember it before my illness, and it keeps me awake. I’m so sad. During the day, I look at photos. Sometimes I hear her voice, the way she talks to me. I think about her all the time.
Love fever
Falling in love can become an exceptionally obsessive state at any age. It’s not easy to feel that you can’t organize your thoughts, especially if others start to notice. You may feel that you stop seeing things in their true light and lose control.
I’m completely fixated on it, I can’t concentrate. Every second I want to know where he is and what he’s doing. If he is not with me, everything seems boring and dull. I correspond with him all day long. I don’t have any other business going on. This is too much; if I don’t stop thinking about him, I might lose my job.
Indignation
Sometimes unwanted thoughts at a time and bring pleasure and cause rejection.
My friend inherited a huge amount of money, in addition, she has a naturally slender physique and can eat whatever she wants. She was recently reprimanded at work, and I have to admit that I thought, ” well, at least something is wrong with her!” I am ashamed of such thoughts.
Not entirely unwanted obsessive thoughts become a problem only if you start to struggle with them, if you worry about these thoughts and what they might mean, or if you think they are painful or bad. They pass when the emotion that feeds them (anger, grief, first love, resentment) fades over time. They don’t say anything about character or impulses that should be resisted: it’s your exuberant imagination in action. Everyone has not exactly unwanted obsessive thoughts. The only thing that creates a problem is trying to fight them.