What are Intrusive Thoughts?
When something is called intrusive, it’s usually referring to something unwanted, annoying, and overbearing. Maybe you’ve had an intrusive plant in your yard that’s taken over because it’s choked out all the good plants. Maybe you’ve had an intrusive neighbor who doesn’t know boundaries and comes over all the time uninvited. You may have even experienced someone who intrudes on your personal space; a close talker who doesn’t know how to take a few steps back. Being called intrusive is certainly not a compliment. Can you then imagine what it might be like to have intrusive thoughts?
Intrusive thoughts do not respect boundaries and are one-hundred percent violating. They overstay their welcome and take over the good thoughts that occupy the brain. These kinds of thoughts are tricky, sneaky, and stealthy in how they enter thought cycles. Sometimes an intrusive thought may blast in like a cannon, loud and disrespectful. At other times it might come in quietly, through faulty reasoning or discernment. No matter how the intrusive thought enters, it always causes distress and panic.
Intrusive thoughts can be about anything but usually, focus on the things we care about most. They can include images and feelings that are usually violent, graphic, disturbing, and realistic. The recipient usually feels caught off-guard by the presence of such an inappropriate or uncomfortable thought, even when there is prepared knowledge that one such thought might arrive at any moment. These thoughts are sudden and unwanted, but it can be difficult to accept that truth with an OCD brain blaring a different message.
I learned early on in therapy that not all my thoughts are wanted, but it took me many years of practice to actually believe that. The OCD part of my brain is convincing. OCD knows how to dissect and incorrectly analyze various intrusive thoughts that would enter my brain. It lies and turns random bizarre thoughts that everyone gets into gut-wrenching truths. It is far too easy to get tricked into ruminating on these intrusive thoughts only to become paralyzed by the fear that such awful thoughts are a reality and in fact, wanted. For me, the only cure for these thoughts was to think about them, reimagine them with appropriate feelings, or getting reassurance about them from someone who had authority like my mom or my therapist. The process and compulsions are never effective in relieving the deep level of anxiety brought on by these thoughts. It’s a hamster wheel of overthinking and quite frankly, it’s exhausting.
The good news is these thoughts can be overcome with strategies, hard work, and practice done in therapy. Medication can also be a helpful tool because when prescribed correctly it can curb the number of intrusive thoughts by balancing the chemicals in the brain that may be out of sorts. I tried to capture the unpredictable nature of intrusive thoughts when Naomi deals with them in my book. I want to give readers a peek into the experience of having those kinds of unwanted thoughts, but while pointing to the hope that God provides through practical tools and most importantly, through His son. If your life is currently dealing with a circus full of traumatizing thoughts, please take heart that you are not alone and there is help. Find a therapist who knows OCD and then get irritated enough with those thoughts to do the work to get rid of them. God will walk with you through the discomfort of noticing, then ignoring them while sitting in the uncertainty, but also trusting in the truth God constantly provides.
