We feel terrified that there’s something deeply, horribly wrong with us at a core level (anxiety) and it makes us feel worthless and full of grief (depression).īut what about OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)?Īs someone who has suffered with OCD I know what it’s like. What is the result of fearing and fixating on our unwanted thoughts? Often, the consequence is increased anxiety and depression. This phenomenon is directly connected to intrusive thoughts: the more we try not to think about something, the more we think about it. Kind of ironic isn’t it?īut this game, in essence, is the premise for a psychological phenomenon known as the “ Ironic Process Theory” that states that the more you suppress a thought or thoughts, the more they will appear. Have you ever played the “Pink Elephant” game before? The funny thing about this game is that the more you try to avoid thinking about a pink elephant, the more likely the thought is to arise in your mind. And the more we fear/fixate, the more power and energy we give such thoughts so that they keep returning.
Unwanted thoughts become intrusive thoughts when we fear and fixate on them. When Unwanted Thoughts Become Intrusive Thoughts Such a toxic core belief is at the root of a lot of our fearful behavior and it’s what drives us to fear and fixate in the first place. Why? The answer is that our ego (or sense of self) is trying to reinforce that self-image (because even though such an idea harms us, it makes us feel safe and solid). the culture we were brought up in (especially if it was repressive)Įssentially, if we have been sent the message (or have come to believe) that there’s something “inherently wrong with us” we will be more prone to neurotic fixation.There are a number of reasons why we might be more prone to neurotic fixation (as opposed to the average person who just ignores the thought and lets it go by): The answer is that we fear them, fixate on them, and believe they mean something about us. Why do unwanted thoughts cause us to suffer so much?
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