Shin Sekai Yori is an light novel / anime about what happens when these thoughts have power and how a society might develop to control the destructive consequences of said thoughts.
It gets used for all of that but I think it’s also more literally the feeling you get standing near a tall edge and picturing what it’d be like to jump. Translated from the French “l’appel du vide” I believe. I have it very strong, all the forms…
Lol my mom and I have OCD. She’s got a bit of this type, fortunately mine is a bit more of the I really really love filing and collecting things (data hoarding) borderline autistic type.
our brains run simulations of awful situations all the time as a diagnostic self-test system. The fact that we recoil in revulsion from destructive intrusive thoughts is a sign that we are still at least nominally sane. Those who yearn for peace prepare for war. Likewise, those who care for their loved ones prepare to face terrible events that might befall them.
Now imagine riding one with your wife and TWO CHILDREN.
NEVER. FUCKING. AGAIN.
(Disclaimer: nothing happened, but the fucking horror and constant stress. That’s the kind of shit I have no problem doing by myself or with my wife only.)
Don’t be sorry for these intrusive thoughts. It’s from our ancestors, when they could only survive through killing their offspring. It’s an old part of your brain that plays devil’s advocate. Use it, redirect it, of course, be aware, especially when you’re a sleepwalker.
Trust me these thoughts can come easily when you do work with meat. Just having to gut a rabbit once in my life, causes me to this day intrusive thoughts that I find incredibly uncomfortable whenever I’m handling any living being. My brain suddenly going “By the way, this is how it would feel to cut through that animals skin”.
A person can experience many things that can cause these intrusive thoughts from past experiences. In my case it was cutting meat. Videogames also massively further provide fuel for uncomfortable pieces of imagination. Notable is that people do not have the urge to act upon it, rather so it’s literally just the brain forcing you to imagine it as a possibility.
Your narrow anecdotal evidence does not match with everyone.
It’s not exactly “thinking about hurting my children” and more having depersonalised thoughts of someone who looks like me and has ny life, but isn’t me, hurting my children.
I’m happy to hear you never personally experienced that symptom, that makes you lucky. It is a very common symptom of postpartum depression, and anxiety.
They are terrifying thoughts. No one who experiences true intrusive thoughts is even entertaining the idea of acting on them, removing someone from society is overkill in most cases. There is cause for concern when there are pre-existing mental health conditions that tap into impulsivity, hallucination, and derealisation, but that’s why you need to act on a case by case basis.
I agree that people who are experiencing intrusive thoughts of harming others need professional pshycological support - but not because they are a danger to society, that’s not the nature of the disease. Intrusive thoughts are a source of anxiety and trauma in and of themselves, and left untreated can trigger OCD symptoms in people who didn’t previously have OCD.
for me at least intrusive thoughts are basically equivalent to someone just saying it to me, and my response is simply “well, why would i do that? stop being dumb”
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