#intrusive thoughts dont 'win'. you either obsess over them or forget about about them. theres no winning it just is | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

caffeinatedopossum · 2 years ago

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I think many people who refer to intrusive thoughts incorrectly as being like "oo I dyed my hair! My intrusive thoughts won today teehee" are actually thinking of *impulsive thoughts* which, while not always normal, are still distinct from intrusive thoughts

#i think of impulsive thoughts as being much more action leaning #like when you have an impulsive thought youre more likely to act quickly and think on it less #perhaps even regretting it later #and obviously this can be dangerous and harmful too just in a different way #and the only reason i make this distinction is because people with intrusive thoughts dont want to act on them #often they will think about it for hours because of how distressing the mere concept of them maybe wanting to act on it is to them #intrusive thoughts dont 'win'. you either obsess over them or forget about about them. theres no winning it just is #anyway maybe this is pedantic and seems unimportant #but as someone with often very distressing and obsessive intrusive thoughts #i can say that nothing scares me more than the idea that those thoughts will 'win'#impulsive thoughts also come from a place of desire/actually wanting to act on the thing at least a little bit #even if you havent stopped to consider that it might be a bad idea or you might regret it #its like if you think 'i want to eat a second piece of cake' and then you do even though you know this will give you a stomach ache #versus thinking 'what if i ate thumbtacks' and then being very worried that theres something wrong with you #you probably didnt *want* to eat thumbtacks. it was just a passing thought that couldn't be dismissed #i hope this makes sense at least a little bit and im not invalidating of confusing anyone

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