hi! i have ocd. something that really bothers me is when people kind of just make any “bad thought” an intrusive thought — when in reality, intrusive thoughts have a very specific criteria.
intrusive thoughts are an intrusion on your everyday thoughts. the point of them being intrusive is that they cause significant psychological stress when they are present. an intrusive thought affects behavior to a significant degree, and for a lot of people, many compulsions stem from either trying to prove to yourself or other people that you will not do the action envisioned in the intrusive thought (i.e: having intrusive thoughts about children, so you go out of your way to not interact with or even engage with anything involving children), or trying to “prevent” the envisioned scenario in the intrusive thought. (i.e: having an intrusive thought involving a car accident, so you avoid cars whenever possible.)
i see this a lot in defense of jax, especially the jax and gangle scene, where people say that the scenes pomni witness are “intrusive thoughts” and are therefore not representative of jax’s real ideas and beliefs. but this isn’t true, because jax does act on them. they may not be the envisioned scenarios 1:1, but these are things we can reasonably assume she would do. sexually tormenting gangle is something she does. making fun of zooble’s grief is something she does. being willing to assault pomni is something she does. having misogynistic tendencies and thoughts, even directed at other people more than herself, is something she does.
intrusive thoughts don’t do this to someone. the idea of doing or saying these things causes significant distress — and that’s what makes it intrusive.
if it doesn’t cause distress, and you’re willing to do the things you think about, that’s a desire. not an intrusive thought.
