Intrusive Thought?

[aangel]

Is this an intrusive thought? Sometimes I can't tell and my thoughts make me feel like a witch. I was looking at a picture of a cute baby and it's like my mind started to make a "joke" in relation to the OCD theme I been having (I've bounced through so many different obsessions and they're all horrible). I cut the thought off I know I probably shouldn't have done that. I have no desire to hurt anyone, especially babies. Ugh I hate this so much.

[SLA]

Yes, that is an intrusive thought.

I'm in a rush, and just leaving the office, but wrote an article on this recently:
http://www.startinglifeagain.com/2016/09/26/3-steps-to-beating-intrusivenegative-thoughts/

Have a read, and let me know what you think. I'm just getting into writing.

[aangel]

Thanks for the article. It was really encouraging. I tired of falling for intrusive thought tricks.

[MyNameIsTerry]

You don't mention the content to be sure BUT I am thinking an intrusive thought or a Mind Pop. The latter are a newer area of research that work in a similar way but are not geared towards fear & the unpleasant side that intrusive thoughts are.

I've written quite a bit in this post that explain some of the variations I've had through recovering from them twice and from any reading about them over the last few years:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=184847

Given the joke element, you might be talking about a backdoor spike. There's not enough detail to say for sure, and there is no need to discuss anything you feel uncomfortable with, but between SLA's article, my other post and expert articles (Steve Seay's in the US are excellent), I bet you will be able to work it out.

Either way, it's nothing to worry about. Try to accept them and cut your reactions down, it's the way out of them and ironically the fear reaction is what it wants to tick the box in the process. Starve it of that and you will work your way out of them.

[aangel]

Yeah I think it was an intrusive thought. The details are kind of fuzzy now but it was something along the lines of "Wouldn't it be funny to do this horrible thing". It just felt my brain was making light of or joking about horrible twisted things I would never want do. I stopped the thought right in the middle of it and I felt guilty because it felt like I was thinking that thought on purpose.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Yes, that's an intrusive thought.

Ironically, the reaction of guilt and stopping it (blocking) is going to reinforce it to your subconscious. A good example of this is here:

http://psychology.tools/intrusive-thoughts-brain-metaphor.html

And remember the polar bear example? Trying to stop yourself thinking about a polar bear makes your subconscious expend more energy trying to stop you thinking about a polar bear. The result is, you are more likely to think about a polar bear. That backs up the example above too, the subconscious is told it's more important by your conscious mind. Here is the example if you are not familiar with it:

http://psychology.tools/thought-suppression-and-intrusive-thoughts.html

It's much better to pull the rug from under this mechanism by accepting a thought as just a thought and that doesn't mean you accept the content in the context you are worrying, it just means you react to it the same way as a thought popping into your head to buy more milk when you are in the supermarket.