Intrusive thoughts
Sudden, unwanted thoughts that often stand in complete contradiction to the values of the person having them.
How it shows up
An image of jumping, though you don’t want to. A thought that frightens you because you’d take it as a sign you’re a bad person. The great majority of people have such thoughts; the only difference is how much meaning we give them.
What we do with it in therapy
The work doesn’t go towards removing the thought — trying not to think something strengthens it. It goes towards a different relationship to it: a thought as an event in the head, not a message about you.
See also
Post-traumatic growth
A change for the better that appears in some people after a severe experience — neither inevitable nor expected.
Mindfulness
Deliberate attention to what is here now, without judging it.
Boundaries within a family
The invisible lines that determine who belongs where in a family and who decides what.
