Where Do Intrusive Thoughts Come From – and Why You’re Not Your Thoughts

Where do intrusive thoughts come from?

The short answer is: your brain doing its job. The long answer is a bit more interesting.

The Brain: A Pattern-Spotting, Threat-Detecting Machine

Your brain is built for survival, not peace. It’s always scanning for threats, imagining scenarios, and making connections. Most of the time, these mental flashes happen without you even noticing. But sometimes, the brain serves up a thought that feels disturbing, out of character, or just plain weird.

Cue panic.
Cue shame.
Cue the loop.

But here’s the thing: your brain is not trying to upset you. It’s just trying to keep you safe. It throws out possibilities, rehearses potential dangers, and runs simulations. Think of it like a creative toddler with a wild imagination - only it doesn’t know what’s helpful and what’s not.

Stress, trauma, sleep deprivation, hormonal changes, or even caffeine can make these thoughts more frequent or more intense. But they’re not a sign of personal failure. They’re a sign your brain is on high alert.

Why You Are Not Your Thoughts

This might be the most important part.

Thoughts appear in your awareness.
But they aren’t you.

They are events in consciousness - like clouds moving across the sky. Some are helpful. Some are pointless. Some are bizarre. Some are intrusive. All are temporary.

If a thought were you, then it would define you completely. But you’ve had thoughts you didn’t believe. You’ve had thoughts that contradicted each other. You’ve even forgotten thousands of them. Yet you’re still here. The constant thread is not the thought stream. It’s the awareness of it.

That quiet presence underneath the noise - that’s you.

You’re Not the Commentator, You’re the Screen

Imagine a movie playing on a screen. The scenes change, the characters change, the music swells and fades. But the screen remains untouched.

Your thoughts are the movie.
You are the screen.

When you start to see this, you stop taking the mind’s chatter so seriously. You don’t have to believe every mental comment. You don’t have to react. You can simply notice and return to what’s actually happening: the breath, the body, the moment.

The Real Skill Is Disidentification

That doesn’t mean pushing thoughts away. It means no longer fusing with them. No longer saying this thought is me or this must mean something terrible.

It’s the difference between “I’m a bad person” and “I’m having a thought that I might be a bad person”.
See the gap? That gap is freedom.

Closing Thought

Intrusive thoughts lose power the moment we stop identifying with them. They come from a busy, protective mind trying to predict or prevent danger - but they’re just noise. Not truth. Not prophecy. Not identity.

So when a thought hits hard, take a breath. Ground into your body. Remember: thoughts arise and pass. You remain.

You are not your thoughts.
You are the one aware of them.