How can I write intrusive thoughts in a 1st person narrative?
“The same way you’d normally write a thought, followed by anxiety or dismissal of said thought” is how I’ve been doing it in my own writing because that tends to be how it goes for me
I agree. Maybe with repetition. My intrusive thoughts usually stick around until the situation is passed. So like if I have an intrusive thought about dropping a fragile item, it will stay until I have put it down safely. If I have an intrusive thought about driving off a bridge, it won’t fully go away until I’m over the bridge. So, just What if I drove off the side of the bridge? No, I’m driving straight and it would be bad if it happened, so I should just be careful and keep driving straight. But what if it just happens? It happens in my dreams all the time. It wouldn’t be like in my dreams because in my dreams my car is able to drive underwater and there’s still fresh air, so just keep driving, I’m almost past and it will be ok.
TW: violence and blood mentions
An intrusive thought is like having some pessimistic voice in your head with a one track mind and is impossible to be argued with. In the past, I’ve had one about stabbing my significant other. And not just a voice. I imagined it at random times. The blood. The knife I would use. I never would have acted on it, but whenever I got stressed out and felt trapped and overly criticized I almost fantasized about it. I was horrified by the thought. But that didn’t make it go away. What made it go away was not stressing about it or trying to suppress it. Basically accepting it, and realizing why I was having those thoughts. And just saying “I won’t.” So I guess, there doesn’t have to be just thoughts but visions are possible. And fighting them makes them more stubborn.
I always, always had images in my head but I don’t really think in words - just images. So I always saw really detailed images of these bad things, just flashes, but they wouldn’t go away.