I have also experienced this, AzulOscura.

In my case, I think it is the result of how I was parented and genetics. When "don't bother" thoughts pop into my mind in the situations you describe, I have a general awareness of where they come from although as I get older, specifics have faded from my memory.

Mental illness also has a role in all this and the genesis of that.

I believe my parents suffer or suffered clinical or subclinical mental illness. I developed childlike survival and coping skills in order to live in that family situation.

Asking for help in my little mind was perceived to be dangerous. All this made a deep rut into my adult thinking processes which I can fall into even in the present. Sometimes childhood survival skills become counterproductive in adulthood but hang on with tenacity.

It is like an underground spring of water trying to reach the surface. Sometimes that spring water runs into obstacles like boulders and such and eventually the spring water emerges in a place that is far from its origin.

Sometimes the spring water is able to break up rocks and such and sometimes not. Anyway, that is how I tend to think of it.

It is like I run on auto-pilot. Sometimes I am able to observe what the auto-pilot is doing and ask questions like: "why is the automation doing that." At times I am able to gain some insight about it. At other times, not so much.

Each of us is born into a family that is not of our choosing. We are born into that family as its weakest member. We develop one year old coping skills, two year old coping skills, and, and, and. They all build up on each other and not usually in a logical or systematic way, almost like layers. Where we end up is partly the result of all this. Habits become second nature. Maybe all this becomes our "auto-pilot."

I don't know.

I think the various layers of our brain can have powerful influences on us: our insect brain, our reptile brain and so on. Those layers of our brain have their own biological coping skills, such as the fight, flight or freeze instinct.

I can't, of course, know the origins of other people's thought streams. Can only share my own personal experiences.

I try to do my best to understand my so-called "auto-pilot" and take over control through self-reflection and transcendental action. Being able to step away from it gives me a certain power over it, if that makes any sense.

Best wishes.