Flashes of Dark Thoughts?

[Aleece13]

Lately I have been experiencing dark thoughts... Not necessarily about murder or anything like that, but of being hurt or accidentally hurting someone else. It's random, but when it happens I literally picture how it's going to go down and feel all the emotions I'm sure I would feel if it came true. If it's bad enough I will be anxiety stricken for a few minutes if not an hour, but I will continue to think about it and wonder what it was from the rest of the day.


Does anyone else experience this? It is such an uncomfortable feeling and makes me feel like it means something or something is wrong with me?

 

[cafwen]

I don't think this is terribly uncommon, in fact most people will experience some strange impulses every now and then. Are you concerned that the frequency of these thoughts is increasing or that the feelings are getting stronger? It might be a message from your subconscious that something deeper is troubling you, but it could equally be a passing phase if you are under more stress than usual?

 

[brdwlk]

I would agree. As long as the frequency and intensity are not increasing, I would think that it's not something to worry about, but I'm not a doctor of any kind. I have dark thoughts from time to time, but I have no desire to act on them, and they are rare.

 

[Aleece13]

I don't think this is terribly uncommon, in fact most people will experience some strange impulses every now and then. Are you concerned that the frequency of these thoughts is increasing or that the feelings are getting stronger? It might be a message from your subconscious that something deeper is troubling you, but it could equally be a passing phase if you are under more stress than usual?

Honestly, I don't know whether to be concerned or not. They have definitely gotten stronger in the past year, not frequent, but stronger. I know I'm under more stress then normal, but I don't feel stressed out by anything in particular, nothing I can't control. I'm not sure what to think about them.

 

[Fae]

I tend to have many such thoughts myself. It happens most regularly around high places, but the imaginings of harming/being harmed come many other times as well. I would say that it's likely nothing to be concerned about unless there's actions on those things or a strong compulsion to action.


If you do know that stress could be increasing the strength of them and you find that troubling, it could be good to look into stress management techniques.

 

[Aleece13]

Thank you all for your advice. I was really nervous about putting this post out. It's nice to know there are others who have similar issues. I don't feel the need to act on them, which is why they scare me. I'm not a dark person at all.

 

[kelden]

I only have these kinds of dark thoughts when I'm totally anxious or very depressed, I remember pretty rough nightmares that ended up as night terror or even somnanbulism. I realized that because everytime when I felt like this before sleep, it happened. About random dark thoughts during daytime, I only have them for the same reasons.

 

[Ashley0323]

I would say this is rather normal. I think most people go through this at one point or another. I would say as long as you dont feel like the intensity is getting stronger, or the "urge" so to say, then I think its fine. If you feel these thoughts may come true, you need to call your doctor. I get thoughts sometimes, and sometimes I will dwell on the topic for hours, and get SOO mad about whats going through my head, yet the actual senerio never happened.

 

[John Snort]

There's something that could help you block the thoughts — mindfulness meditation. If you are interested it's something you could easily learn as there are many youtube videos that could provide you with all the guidance you need. Once you learn mindfulness meditation each time these intrusive thoughts surface you'll fend them off easily.

 

[djanx]

Does anyone else experience this? It is such an uncomfortable feeling and makes me feel like it means something or something is wrong with me?

Well, I used to experience such thoughts about a decade back. Then, I read somewhere about the rubber band technique. What I did was that I wore a rubber band on my wrist, and everytime I had a dark thought, I would pull the band and release it. The pain would instantly remind me to think something else. I know it seems brutal, but believe me after the first two times, you won't even need the rubber band.


Also, I used a self-hypnosis technique. While I am not sure, I can share it with you. But, basically, I used visualizations - I would watch myself thinking something bad, and then, I would create a small dot or window at the bottom or the top of the vision. Then, I would expand that dot, so as to cover the whole bad vision. After the dot would cover the whole "mind-screen", I would replace it with a positive scene. For me it was this beautiful landscape. Again, I would recommend reading up about it. I don't know what they call that technique. But, it worked for me with consistent practice.

 

[Aleece13]

There's something that could help you block the thoughts — mindfulness meditation. If you are interested it's something you could easily learn as there are many youtube videos that could provide you with all the guidance you need. Once you learn mindfulness meditation each time these intrusive thoughts surface you'll fend them off easily.

I have tried to get into meditation, but have no idea how to start. I've tried the YouTube videos, but haven't found any that really worked for me. Thank you for sharing! I will have to look into mindfulness meditation, maybe it'll give me better results.

 

[porter14]

Certainly not uncommon. I think that everyone at one point and time in their life will experience this type of deep thought about something. However, your thoughts will only go as far as you take them. If this is something that you do not want to experience, then try to replace those thoughts with something positive in your life. The mind has a way of attracting certain situations in your life, called the law of attraction. Now I am not saying that this will indeed happen to you. But think about it for a minute, millionaires think about what? Money! And they take action to go after it because that is all they think about. Now I am sure they have a few bad thoughts here and there. but they recognized that they did not want to think about that particular bad thought and replaced that thought with something that is positive and something that they are passionate about.


Growing up in a mentally insecure environment, I had my mind trained to think about all the bad things my husband could be doing and had pictured it out like it was really happening. But those were just thoughts. As I have matured and gained knowledge in this world from various resources, I have come to the understanding that I and no one else but I have control over my mind. In other words, if a bad thought comes to my head and I don't want it there, I immediately replace it with a positive thought, like making money , lots and lots of money. Sometimes replacing them with the thoughts of how much I love my kids and husband.


Only you have control over your mind. This may sound silly but you can talk to your thoughts and tell them to go away and eventually you will stop thinking about those bad things. I am a living witness to what I am writing. Sometimes the thoughts come back but instead of concentrating on them and creating this big picture of what would happen, I change my thoughts and I feel so much better. Less stress too.

 

[Aleece13]

Also, I used a self-hypnosis technique. While I am not sure, I can share it with you. But, basically, I used visualizations - I would watch myself thinking something bad, and then, I would create a small dot or window at the bottom or the top of the vision. Then, I would expand that dot, so as to cover the whole bad vision. After the dot would cover the whole "mind-screen", I would replace it with a positive scene. For me it was this beautiful landscape. Again, I would recommend reading up about it. I don't know what they call that technique. But, it worked for me with consistent practice.

I have tried the rubber band trick with other things, never thought about using it here. I will definitely try it! The self-hypnosis is a really good idea, I've never done any form of hypnosis so I think this might be slightly hard. Thank you for sharing your techniques with me!

 

[sorrowscall]

I think dark thoughts is more of a coping mechanism we use as a species to deal with the stresses of our world. Maybe we don't know the synopses or neurotransmitters involved yet in why we get these thoughts? They also have something to do with our Id and Ego. Unfortunately, I don't know enough about the scientific side of this to be of any help. I just know it's okay to have those dark thoughts as long as we don't act on them. For example, I have a coworker that I can't stand. I like to think of what might happen to her one day when she's being especially vulgar to me. However, I don't help these events to occur. But I'm not making a conscious effort to think about them. Their, as you say, "flashes". That's why I believe this is more of a coping mechanism.

 

[Aleece13]

Only you have control over your mind. This may sound silly but you can talk to your thoughts and tell them to go away and eventually you will stop thinking about those bad things. I am a living witness to what I am writing. Sometimes the thoughts come back but instead of concentrating on them and creating this big picture of what would happen, I change my thoughts and I feel so much better. Less stress too.

I agree completely with you. I know I alone can control the thoughts that I have, it has just been harder with these cause I stop and watch them like in a trance. I don't know if that makes sense or not... I know I can control them, but when the thoughts occur my initial reaction is not Oh No, Think Positive.. Think Positive.. I'm not terrified by the thoughts, they are just random and not frequent at all, matter of fact they are rare. I do need to work on it though for when they do happen, I don't like the after effects of the thoughts and controlling my thoughts would help the tension and stress from them to go away. Thank you.

 

[DDNatureLover]

I do think that most people have such thoughts at least once or twice during their lifetimes. If as mentioned, you seem to be under more stress than usual, that could be the cause. I know that is a trigger for me. Another trigger is feeling out of control of the situation I'm in, and the loss of a love one can give me pause to consider what ifs. It might be helpful to keep track of your thoughts, and log down what came before, and what your response was, as well as the outcome of your response. That could help you to figure out not only the triggers for such thoughts, but things that are helpful or that exacerbate the dark thoughts.

 

[mauricioq]

I don't think you should be alarmed, that sounds like a normal thing, every now and then we feel bad and we think about things that we don't want to. That happens to me, but it's just "brainstorming" just because I'm thinking about something doesn't mean I'm going to do it. You just need to have morals to know what is and isn't wrong.

 

[misszerable]

Aleece13 your question made me think about my own dark thoughts and why I never felt bad about those thoughts. I was never an abused child but as early as the age of 9, I would actually delight myself by fantasizing about hurting kids and hearing them cry. I just loved to imagine kids crying out of pain and I found them really cute when they cry. It was great that I never act it out in real life, I mean hurting kids. Ever played the game SIMS? I used to play it and I would often call and adopt a toddler. I would then allow it to stink in the game by not giving him/her a bath. I would also not feed him/her. I would prevent the other characters in the game from helping the child by placing furniture and other obstructions on their way. I just loved to watch them whine and scream. Soon enough, the social workers will fetch the child and take all the children living inside the house. Well, I have my own child now and I never want to see him cry. I love him to bits. I also have nephews and nieces and I love them as well. Those dark thoughts are just that, dark thoughts.

 

[clair02]

Nothing is 'wrong' with you. I used to get that too. It started soon after I had my daughter. It only happened when I was around her and I would be overcome by this feeling of powerlessness to protect her. It was totally overwhelming.. What helped me was that evertime I would have those thoughts I would disrupt the thought as soon as I became aware of it. I would do anything to distract myself, sing, laugh, shout... I always would tell myself " There I go again with that..." and then consciously shift my thoughts to something positive. My favorite was visualizing me and my grown up daughter at my 80th birthday party, and she's there with her kids who are grown. The scene never failed to cheer me up. Maybe you could try something of that nature.

 

[Aree Wongwanlee]

Dark thoughts? I think I have thought about something like that. However, I don't like to dwell upon them, so I cannot remember the details. In my case, it happens when I am really unhappy with someone and I cannot do anything about it. That's when I start imagining myself doing some really horrible things to that person. It doesn't last long, though. Maybe just for a day. Then, the next day, I would have forgotten all about it.