Why do we have these thoughts, like driving down the road and just feel like swearing or being High up and feel like jumping down
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Psychologist here:
On cognitive therapy we call them automatic thoughts, they are intimately related to our feelings and behavior and they come as a symptom of our core beliefs, that were developed with time and experiences we had (and guess what? Are intimately linked to our feelings and behavior as well!).
It is NORMAL to have automatic thoughts, everyone has them, problem is, as you said, when they are a reflection of a view about yourself/the world that doesn’t match, so your core beliefs start getting a bit off with the reality. Basically, the way you learned to react/deal with certain situations stopped being appropriate for the present time of your life.
On cognitive therapy, we will address these thoughts very briefly, bc they are only A SYMPTOM of a problem, so our focus will be on solving cognitive dissonances you have and work on adaptative responses to the situations where you have these thoughts. I won’t extend myself more, but if you want to know more about it, I recommend you to read Aaron Beck and his daughter, Judith Beck. They are the biggest references on this area!
Just wanted to share that I listened to an intrusive thought when I was a teenager hahaha. I was on the back deck cleaning my hamster cage, talking to my step dad. And my brain went, “What would happen if you threw hamster poo at him?”
…he was very surprised and not happy hahaha.
Potentially you have OCD or PTSD, these could initiate them to occur. But they could also be triggered by stress or anxiety.
[Spaghetti sauce](https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/managing-intrusive-thoughts)
I’ll be back with a link, (I know this isn’t truly ELI5, but it is actually research) but I read a study this week that connects ruminating thoughts with dysfunctional messaging from the enteric nervous system. TBH it was really difficult for this non-scientist to understand so maybe someone can interpret it? Brb
[Highly ruminative individuals with depression exhibit abnormalities in the neural processing of gastric interoception](https://www.psypost.org/2022/11/highly-ruminative-individuals-with-depression-exhibit-abnormalities-in-the-neural-processing-of-gastric-interoception-64337)
I have a theory that there are different loci of cognition in the brain with competing inputs, but a particular one of them generally gets its way almost all of the time. The overruled loci are in something of a power struggle with the preferred one, each seeing an incomplete portion of all sensory input and having an incomplete cognitive toolkit for decision-making.
In this framework, intrusive thoughts are the demands of one or more subject loci, clamoring for power inside their grey milieu.
Also, we like intoxication and substance abuse because it temporarily upsets this detente and shunts more decision-making power towards cognitive loci that are generally denied it.
Stress response that the body experiences during the anxiety that comes with the experience. Humans are wired to do something when feeling anxious like walk around, hunt an animal, fight to defend ourselves or otherwise move.
Modern man sits at a desk and lashes out online to get that dopamine/adrenaline rush because they are not moving and reacting. Same with a car, we are sitting and feeling the anxiety, stress and excitement of moving at a high rate and endangering out lives, and our body has no release so it strains towards an action that releases that built up anxiety and chemicals inside our system.
One reason is that part of our brain looks at the world in terms of how it can interact with it — for example grasping a handle, pushing a button, or stepping on a stair. There is a sense in which those things prompt those responses by being designed to be used. Stepping off a cliff is partly an extension of the impulse to grab and manipulate.
I think the fact that “The call of the void” scares us is the point. Like other people said, we have the thoughts to consider what would happen if we did certain things, when we realize how bad the outcome would be, it scares us. Humans are really good at classifying or naming things so we eventually started calling rational thoughts about suicidal actions, “The call of the void.” A scary name for a scary thought.
If you saw say a dramatic car accident, your body would naturally react by focusing on it. Your eyes widen. You become so hyper focused that time seems to slow down. This instinct probably helped our ancestors better avoid perilous events by being sure we took in every detail when they happen so we could better avoid them in the future.
When you are on the edge of a cliff and think about what would happen if you fall, your mind identifies that as another perilous event. It starts to become hyper focused on that thought just like seeing an actual perilous event would because it has trouble distinguishing the difference. It’s not that you *want* to fall off the edge. Quite the opposite. But you can’t help but think about falling off the edge because your instincts compel you to become focused on such events.
These thoughts are triggered when you, or more specifically your brain overheats.
When your brain overheats you react to otherwise neutral stimuli as if you were being attacked, hence the swearing as a defense mechanism.
It’s called Thermoregulatory Fear of Harm Mood Disorder.
Preventative cooling activities can really help and also ketamine too.
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