Lesson 1 of 6 · What is actually happening
What makes it a problem, and what does not
Almost everybody has strange, unwanted thoughts. In a study run across thirteen countries and six continents, roughly ninety four students in every hundred reported at least one in the previous three months. Having them is ordinary.
What turns an ordinary intrusion into something that eats your day is not the thought. It is the second step. Deciding the thought means something about you, and then doing something to make sure it does not. Checking. Repeating. Asking. Looking it up one more time.
That second step is where the whole thing lives. It is also the part where you have some room to move.
What the research says
Across 683 students in 13 countries, 93.6 per cent reported an unwanted intrusive thought in the previous three months. Having them is close to universal, whatever the thought was about.
683 students at 15 sites in 13 countries across six continents. 93.6 per cent reported at least one unwanted intrusive thought in the previous three months. Having them is close to universal.
Radomsky AS, Alcolado GM, Abramowitz JS, and 16 others (2014). Part 1. You can run but you can't hide: intrusive thoughts on six continents. Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disorders, 3(3), 269 to 279 doi
The obsessions of patients could not be told apart from the intrusive thoughts of people with no diagnosis by their content. What separated the groups was how often, how long, how distressing and how hard they were fought.
The obsessions of patients were largely indistinguishable in content from the intrusive thoughts of people with no diagnosis at all. What separated the two groups was how often the thoughts came, how long they stayed, how much distress they caused and how hard they were resisted. That is the second step, described before anybody had a name for it.
Rachman S, de Silva P (1978). Abnormal and normal obsessions. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 16(4), 233 to 248 doi