Notes On… Intrusive Thoughts

Some thoughts arrive like trespassers.
Uninvited.
Unfamiliar.
Unbearably loud.

They say:
Push the stranger in front of the train.
You’re a monster.
What if you hurt your child?
What if God hates you?
What if you want it?

And then comes the spiral:
Why did I think that?
Does this mean something about me?
Am I dangerous? Perverted? Broken?

But here’s the truth:

Intrusive thoughts are not the problem.
Our interpretation of them, the fear, the shame, the compulsive analysis, is what binds us.

Everyone has intrusive thoughts.
But for some people, especially those with OCD, trauma histories, or sensitive temperaments, the thoughts don’t just pass.
They stick.
They scrape.
They threaten identity, safety, and sanity.

We call them ego-dystonic, meaning they don’t align with your values.
That’s exactly what makes them so distressing.

Ironically, the more you try to make them go away, the stronger they get.

The mind misreads your panic as proof that the thought is dangerous.
So it scans again.
And again.
And again.

The cycle begins.

Therapy teaches:

You don’t have to analyze the thought.
You don’t have to confess it.
You don’t have to argue with it.
You can say: Hello, again. I see you.
And I’m not feeding you today.

Intrusive thoughts are brain static, not prophecy.
They’re noise, not narrative.
The goal isn’t to control the content of your mind;
It’s to change your relationship to it.

A thought is not a threat.
A thought is not a sin.
A thought is not a self.

You are allowed to have thoughts that scare you, without believing they define you.
You are allowed to let them pass like weather.
You are allowed to hold space for your mind’s weirdest, wildest, cruelest offerings without taking them personally.

You are not your thoughts.
You are the awareness that notices them and lets them go.