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That's why it's so important that you try to break the compulsions in addition to the obsessions. Behaviors that you do to stop the thoughts end up reinforcing them, because it acknowledges that they're something that causes fear. So every time you try not to have the thought, you actually increase the likelihood of having it again.įinally, compulsions also make these unwanted thoughts worse. Your brain doesn't want you to forget anything, so when you try to forget something it reminds you about it more than if you didn't care about the thought at all. It's a phenomenon known as thought suppression. Anxiety also changes the way your brain works so that it's harder to have positive thoughts, which also pushes these unwanted thoughts back into your mind.Īnother important fact about these thoughts is that studies have shown time and time again that the more you try not to think about something, the more you think about it. Think of anxiety like a disease - it wants you to experience anxiety more, so it brings the thought back into your mind to cause you that anxiety. The reason you have them more often is because your anxiety brings them back. Everyone has the occasional weird thought once in a while.

First and foremost, these thoughts mean nothing about who you are. There are many important things to realize about these unwanted thoughts. Fighting the Thoughts Brings Them Back Harder Their development is often fairly complicated, and in some places it may occur from nothing more than chance - such as noticing that one day when you turned off a light bulb some thought went away, so you turn off light bulbs when the thought comes back. Habits may make sense based on the unwanted thought (such as turning the stove on and off multiple times when you're worried about the stove), or they may seem completely random (tapping a lamp post to avoid aggressive or unusual thoughts).

Tapping or placing objects in some type of order.

Compulsions are behaviors that you perform that calm you so that you don't stress over the thought anymore. That's why many people develop compulsions. No matter how hard you try to fight the thought away, it will always seem to come back. Once you start thinking the thought, it becomes extremely hard to stop thinking about it. There are different degrees of unwanted thoughts, and all of them can be anxiety related. Very often the thought itself either represents a fear (like getting dirty), or changes how you see yourself, like imagining violent sexual acts against strangers, friends, or even relatives. It's also possible that the thoughts are about those you know or strangers.įor these thoughts to be a problem, they need to cause significant shame, anxiety, or distress.

Fear or thoughts about sinning, hell, or other religious imagery.

Recurring worry about something simple, like locking the door.

Imagining a sexual act, often an aggressive or taboo one.

Other times it changes based on the situation, but generally has something in common with previous thoughts (for example, a sexual image).Įxamples of these types of unwanted thoughts include: Sometimes it's the same thought each time. Other obsessive thoughts are violent, fearful, or even sexual in nature. Unwanted thoughts from OCD are generally called "obsessions" because of how difficult it is for you to stop having the thoughts once you've started. That's what anxiety does - it prevents you from focusing on anything else other than the things that cause you anxiety. The most important thing to realize about unwanted thoughts is that the more you try to fight them, the more common they become.

From recurring fears to "worst case scenario" thinking, unwanted thoughts are extremely common with any type of anxiety. While unwanted thoughts are most common with obsessive compulsive disorder, or OCD, every anxiety disorder can create unwanted thoughts in some way. Any Anxiety Disorder Can Cause Unwanted Thoughts Below are some examples of obsessive thoughts, how they affect your ability to cope with anxiety, and what you can do to stop them.

Unwanted thoughts are especially common with obsessive compulsive disorder, a type of anxiety disorder, but they may affect other anxiety disorders in different ways as well. For some people, anxiety itself can be caused by these thoughts. Anxiety is the type of mental health disorder that specifically causes negative thinking, and the inability to control the thoughts that come into your head. Unwanted thoughts are an extremely common symptom of anxiety disorders.