Do You Experience Intrusive Thoughts?

I have a very serious problem with intrusive looping thoughts. They interfere with my ability to cope with life and are one of many reasons I have to take lorazepam.

I'm kind of curious about how prevalent they are in other members here. Please vote and/or share your experiences.

ALL THE TIME.

Ahem.

Yes, I have sever looping and intrusive thoughts. And they intensity of the thoughts has been getting worse the past few years.

Yes-usually on a daily basis. They often keep me from sleeping.

Thanks to everyone for posting and voting. It is a relief that I'm not alone.

Pretty much daily, and they're accompanied by a looping image when in an episode.

Seeing yourself ram a large knife into your right thigh for 2 weeks straight can be quite distressing.

Yes, i get intense troubling thoughts and feelings often in the day and at night.

In a word YES! I get intrusive thoughts (both scary and benign) on a daily basis. Sometimes it drives me crazy(ier).

Constantly.one time it was a continuous loop of cutting off my own finger
They can take over my brain to the point where i dont realize how distorted my thinking is

I keep thinking they're a symptom of something I haven't been diagnosed with (yet). One of those things I'd rather try to live with by staying occupied (it's exhausting) than tack on another label and med. Of course, my quality of life might be better if I did.....

Yes, often. I think some of it is tied to the anxiety and the OCD but I may be wrong. No matter where they come from, I wish they wouldn't happen!

Yeah I know I do. It's not a good feeling at all

I've had them all my life. They're violent and very disturbing to me. Medications have taken the edge off them but I still get them pretty often.

Yes, especially when I try to fall asleep.
That's when its the very worst for me.
Its so bad now that I truly dread bedtime but yet wish I could sleep all the time.

My pdoc and T agree that mine are OCD related... The way I understand it is the BP kickstarts it, and the OCD fuels it, and the combo makes for an explosive experience.

I have a lot of intrusive thoughts. Never anything violent though. Just constant loops in my head about how everyone hates me, and this person and that person just is phony towards me, how I should not even be here, why did that person say that, etc., etc.... Very exhausting. Keeps me awake at night and keeps me from gettin out of bed in the morning. ( sort of fetal position, paralyzed with all this negativity my inner voice is hurling at me ). In other words, very paranoid. These thoughts are not true, and so what if that person or that person doesnt like me. My normal self does not expect everyone to like me. Just as I dont necessarily like everyone either... For some reason I have not had these thoughts for about a month or so. Wonderful! I think it is because I have been able to avoid a lot of stress lately, I have a good new psykiatrist, I have stayed away from my family for a long while (they trigger me a lot, even though I love them dearly ), all my cognitive therapy is starting to work, and I have been able to start back with volunteer-work (which I love ). So after years of intrusive thoughts (almost constantly), I am getting a break. If I was religious I would thank god, he he he. I am really enjoying this, even though I dare not assume that this will last forever....

Mine really interfere with everything I do. They're constant rehashes of all the stupid things I've done in my life and of all my bad decisions, every faux pas I've committed going back to the cradle.

Sometimes I see my pets being brutally murdered in front of me. Over and over I have to see their tragic deaths even though they are in reality quite happy and healthy and sprawled out at my feet. Once it was so bad I was screaming "Don't show me the pictures anymore. I don't want to see the pictures." I don't know who I thought was making me look at all these sad deaths.

I get them. Mostly at night when i go to bed. Cant get to sleep. Same bad thoughts over and over. I try to switch off. Its weird because when its at it worst, i dont have/recall any dreams. I thought it was just me...!!

I have very violent self harm intrusive images, over and over and over. It will happen 100 times a day easily and not always the same thing, but similar themed (cutting, stabbing, burning etc) and this is when I am "stable"

Clonazepam helped but the memory loss is going to affect me at Uni next year so Im trying to cut it out, down to 1mg once a day and the thoughts are on the brink of out of control again. The intrusive thoughts lead to my "I dont want to do this anymore" thought and then I feel down. It takes a whole lot of skills to get my mood back up again and then it happens all over again. Im not telling the docs how bad it is as I dont want them to up the clonazepam again, I just try to dismiss the thought/image as something that cant hurt me (even though it makes me depressed) and try to move on from it. The distress about them is much less now as I start to realise this is "normal" for me unless heavily medicated and I just have to cope with it.

Definitely yes. Sometimes they physically make me shudder!