Why Your Brain Sends You Junk Mail: Understanding Intrusive Thoughts

Intrusive Thoughts 

Have you ever been minding your own business when a strange, unwelcome, or downright disturbing thought flashes through your mind? A thought that feels completely out of character and leaves you wondering, "Where on earth did that come from?" and "What does that say about me?"

If so, you are not alone. In fact, you're in the vast majority. This post is here to help you understand what these "intrusive thoughts" are, why they happen, and how you can start to change your relationship with them.

Your Brain is a Thought-Generating Supercomputer

First, let's look at some numbers that might surprise you. Your brain is an incredibly powerful and busy organ.

• You are not alone: Research has consistently shown that over 90% of the general population experiences unwanted intrusive thoughts. This includes thoughts of a violent or sexual nature that people are perfectly willing to admit to researchers. They are a normal part of the human experience.

• A sheer volume of thoughts: More recent studies, using advanced fMRI technology, have estimated that the human brain produces around 6,000 distinct thoughts every single day.

As the influential psychologist Steven Hayes has pointed out, a human being with an average vocabulary can generate more coherent sentences than there are estimated molecules in the universe.

The key takeaway is this: Your brain is designed to produce a near-infinite variety of thoughts, and you don't have full control over what it generates. Trying not to think about something is like trying not to think about a white bear—the very act of trying makes it pop into your head even more.

If They're So Normal, Why Do Some Thoughts Get So "Sticky"?

This is the crucial question. If everyone has these thoughts, why do some people get caught on them, leading to immense distress, while others let them pass by?

The answer is that the intrusive thoughts that cause distress, especially in conditions like Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), are intrinsically linked to what you value most.

Think of your brain as having a built-in threat detection system. Its job is to keep you safe, operating on a "better safe than sorry" principle. This system scans for potential dangers, and it pays special attention to the things you care about deeply.

• A new parent who deeply loves their child might have intrusive thoughts about the baby coming to harm.

• A deeply religious person who values their faith might have blasphemous thoughts.

• A kind person who would never hurt anyone might have intrusive thoughts of violence.

Because these thoughts are the exact opposite of your values, they feel more significant and alarming. They have more "stickiness" and are much harder to dismiss than a neutral thought like, "I wonder what would have happened if I’d had a different name." You can dismiss the name thought easily because it doesn't hook into a core fear or value.

Two Metaphors to Help You Break Free

Changing your relationship with these thoughts is key. Instead of fighting them or trying to figure them out, we can learn to see them for what they are: mental noise. Here are two powerful metaphors to help.

1. The Junk Mail of Your Mind

Imagine your brain is an email server. It generates thousands of emails (thoughts) every day. Some are important messages, some are newsletters, and a lot of them are junk mail.

Intrusive thoughts are like junk mail. They are designed to be alarming and attention-grabbing, often using scary headlines to provoke an emotional response ("URGENT: Your Account is Compromised!").

Now, ask yourself:

• What happens when you click open a junk email? You get drawn into a story that might not be true, you click on more links, and you fall further down the rabbit hole of doubt and fear.

• What happens to your inbox when you start opening and engaging with junk mail? The algorithm learns that you're interested, and you start getting even more junk mail.

The answer is to treat intrusive thoughts like junk mail. Acknowledge the scary headline, recognise it for the junk it is, and move on without opening it or engaging with its contents. You don't have to prove it's junk—you can just choose not to click.

2. The Sushi Chef and the Conveyor Belt

Imagine your mind is a sushi chef working hard behind the scenes in a kitchen. The chef makes thousands of unique dishes (thoughts) every day and sends them out on a conveyor belt for you to observe.

You sit and watch the dishes go by. Most are neutral or pleasant. But every so often, the chef sends out a truly disgusting or terrifying dish—an intrusive thought.

Your natural instinct is to panic and immediately push that horrible dish off the conveyor belt. But the chef in the kitchen doesn't understand why you pushed it away. The chef simply sees an empty space on the belt and thinks, "Ah, an empty space! They must want more of that dish!" And so, another horrible dish gets sent out to fill the gap.

The more you fight to get rid of the thoughts, the more your brain serves them up.

The alternative? Let the dish go by. Just watch it appear on the conveyor belt, notice it ("There's that disgusting dish again"), and let it travel along and disappear on its own, without touching it. When the chef sees that the dish isn't being "chosen" or interacted with, the chef will eventually stop making it so often.

The Way Forward

The central message is this: You are not your thoughts. Having an intrusive thought does not make you a bad person, nor does it mean you are going to act on it. The problem is not the thought itself, but the high importance we give it and the struggle we engage in to get rid of it.

These ideas are central to modern psychological therapies like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Inference-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (ICBT). By learning to see our thoughts as mental events, like junk mail or bad sushi, we can start to take away their power and stop them from controlling our lives.

If you are struggling with intrusive thoughts that are causing you significant distress, please get in touch. I can provide you with tailored strategies and support.

References and Further Reading

• Prevalence of Intrusive Thoughts: The finding that over 90% of people experience intrusive thoughts has been replicated in several studies, including this comprehensive one by Abramovitch, A., et al. (2014). The Intrusive Thoughts and Intrusive Images Scale (IITIS): Development and validation of a self-report measure of intrusive cognitions in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

• Number of Daily Thoughts: The estimation of 6,000 thoughts per day comes from highly technical research using fMRI scanners. Tseng, J., & Poppenk, J. (2020). Brain meta-state transitions demarcate thoughts across task contexts.

• A Layperson's Summary: This article provides a good overview of the research into daily thought counts. How Many Thoughts Do You Have a Day?

• Inference-based Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (ICBT): A specific therapy for OCD that focuses on faulty reasoning processes. You can learn more at the official ICBT Online website.