I have intrusive thoughts where a person who broke my heart keeps coming into my head. These thoughts keep saying, "Kenny loves you very much", when I know he really doesn't.

I find these thoughts really odd. In my insanity, I even believed these thoughts were a "sign", when in fact they are just part of a sickness of which there is no cure. I am ignoring those thoughts.

I can live with this, but it's annoying, like and itch that cannot be scratched away. Oh well.

i am suffering from intrusive thoughts about hurting others. i know people with ocd who had this fear for most of their lives. people with intrusive thoughts would never act on their thoughts because that is there worst fear of life like people fear their own death.

all these people who never had intrusive thoughts need to shut up because they don't know what it's like. we would never act on these horrible, horrific thoughts.

I have been having intrusive thoughts about hurting my son for a year now. I am still struggling with this and it is so scary that I have had anxiety attacks to where I almost passed out.

I avoid stories on the news about parents hurting their children because it provokes the intrusive thoughts. I have been in therapy since the day they started. It's hard to not fear these thoughts because it's someone i love dearly and would never want to hurt.

This is something i have never experienced before and it's really scary. i keep reading about how if you let them scare you then you are more prone to these thoughts but it's really easier said than done. i know that i could never hurt my son (i feel bad for spanking him most of the time) but it's just the thought of "why would i think this" that is so scary.

I think that it is more than possible and probable that depending on the individual, they will act on their thoughts.

Please bear, keep and maintain in mind that I said 'depending on the individual,' meaning that we are all different and therefore our perception of things is different and our response mechanism is different.

We also live in a world that is morally bankrupt and as to values-what are they to most people?

I think Punjab2007 needs to awaken from slumbering awareness and step out into the world that is not just in his or her mind.

Please the woman who was talking about her 2 daughters do not fear ok? you're not the only one who has had those thoughts!

I have the worst intrusive thoughts daily. they haunt me all the time and can't control them. I know I don't want to hurt anyone. However the thoughts of death and murder and all these intrusive flashbacks kill me emotionally. I look at people and suddenly get terrible flashes of terrible things happening. I'm scared all the time aboout these thoughts. Then to top it off, there are the intrusive memories of embarrassing moments and I can't shake any of it. I have gotten better and worse in some ways. The intrusive flashbacks just don't stop and lead me to talk to myself and say things that just don't make any sense. I just wish they would stop. I'm afraid of myself and now I'm terrified I might just lose my mind and end up locked away in a psych ward. Problem is I can't get any help because of the wonderful world of no insurance.

I have had intrusive thoughts of suicide complicated because of my father's suicide when I was a baby. They have come and gone for the past decade and tend to come on when I am especially stressed. I have *never* attempted it, and I don't want to. I just fear that one day I would I want to. It is irrational and I work on observing the thought without wishing it away or holding onto it. (Right now I'm kind of holding to it which is why I got to this site.) But I'm pretty certain that intrusive thinking does not lead to action. It's been 10 years, and still, I haven't done anything.

I am someone who's still suffering of intrusive thoughts about suicide, and I should say it's more complex than what someone might study in psychiatry. I actually got addicted to suicide attempts, since a paradoxical response seemed the only way to deal with the anxiety (which is actually what they taught me in treatment of OCD- to not suppress intrusive thoughts).

Plus, I felt very misunderstood in therapy when my therapist would also stress how nobody ever acts upon compulsive thoughts. I should tell you, even if it's rare, suicidal thoughts can be different. It's a matter of life and death to take them seriously in any case.

people who struggle with intrusive thoughts are actually *not* very likely to act on them because they find the thoughts disturbing and distressing.

you may not be able to control your mind, but you can control your body.

if you struggle with these thoughts, get medical or psychological help immediately. don't let it hurt you anymore.

i am going to the doctor *today*.

i m afraid that i may change my DNA with my thoughts!!!

So I have 2 beautiful little girls and I want to get help because I have intrusive thoughts of all sorts of them being hurt accidentally or intentionally and oh, my God, what if it was from me, that fear consumes me! If I get help are they going to be removed from me?

Never say Never.

I experience intrusive thoughts. Some people in this article do seem to have the wrong idea on what these are exactly.

I saw the phobic trust who were very helpful in making me understand what was going on with me as I thought I was going crazy. U are in control of your behaviour, but not always of your thoughts. Something intrusive is something you don't like or want to happen so it is very unlikely that you would act on it.

this article does help me to understand what's been going on in my head. i loved someone very very deeply. we are no longer together, and i know, much to my heartbreak, that we never will be again.

now i know that these unbidden images of our time together that flash through my brain, and cause me a lot of additional pain.. have a name. sometimes putting a name to a thing seems to help...

To K.M.G 'Friend', intrusive thoughts cannot be created or invoked.....if they could be then they are 'not intrusive' thoughts. This can only be understood by the people who have the problem. The fear & anxiety comes with intrusive thoughts, but intrusive thoughts does not come because of fear.

I have intrusive thoughts, i was not abused but they continue. They are driving me to distraction. I found my teenage daughter engaging in sexual relations with a much older man while camping. I do not purposely bring them up, but i have nightmares and for awhile after these incidents i do not try to think them, but they persist. I feel as a father i let her down. I have never experienced such a situation, and am at a loss as what to do. S

To K.M.G.

I disagree with you...

I used to suffer from suicidal intrusive thoughts to the point they consumed my entire life...I've made about a dozen attempts on my life. Three or Four were very serious. While being consumed with these thoughts, I welcomed death.

I think the person who "studied" psychiatry is wrong. I *have* intrusive thoughts and this article is exactly what goes on with me. My intrusive thoughts rarely involve things I fear happening, but are more about things that have already happened, whether 20 years ago or earlier today.

textbook definitions vs. real life experience

Also, because not all intrusive thoughts are distressing, just unwelcome or even uncomfortable, I can easily see how someone under certain mental conditions could act upon them.

The above article is not primarily about acting on "intrusive thoughts". That concept was only half a sentence in this article. This leads me to believe that both of the above respondents may have missed the point of the article.

Intrusive thoughts are defined in the article, either as "unwelcome" thoughts or as repetitive flashbacks. In either case, they are "intrusive" partly because they cannot be readily dismissed by the individual.

People often act on what is most familiar to them, whether or not they actually agree with that behavior. Using the definition of repetitive flashbacks as those thoughts which are disturbing but not easily dismissed, a person may act out the intrusive thoughts when they are emotionally or mentally unstable or simply out of habitual familiarity.

I for one agree with very little of this article.

I have studied psychiatry and find this article very misleading.

"Intrusive thoughts" will NEVER be acted on. Why? BECAUSE they are intrusive! If a person has intrusive thoughts that are unshakable and recurring lets say about suicide, it is because he or she has an enormous fear of suicide. Hence you will find that suicide will be the one thing missing from his/her ' to-do list'.

Also it is wrong to believe that intrusive thoughts are what the name says they are. Remember that you conjure up and create your intrusive thoughts. You think them. Because you fear the subject, (this can develop into an obsession) . The point I'm making is intrusive thoughts will never be acted on. If they were, they would be 'welcomed thoughts'. The thoughts a person acts on are not intrusive, or frighten them. Intrusive thoughts are the result of an intense fear of an event occuring (etc.), hence they go hand in hand with extreme anxiety.

-K.M.G

No, a person is not likely to go through with their thoughts because they find them so distressing. They won't go ahead with it. Thats false it mostly goes against their values and morals.