The research titled (You can run but you can’t hide: Intrusive thoughts on six continents) and published in the Journal of Obsessive-Compulsive and Related Disordersfound that most people may have experienced persistent unwanted thoughts (93.6% of participants), mental images, or symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder.
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The study involved the participation of 777 students from 13 different countries (Canada, Argentina, Australia, France, Greece, Hong Kong, Iran, Israel, Italy, Sierra Leone, Spain, Turkey and the USA), who were trained to distinguish between persistent worries, ruminations about the past and intrusive thoughts. They were then asked if they had experienced at least one intrusive thought during the past three months.
For the co-author of the research, the , these results show that it is not the unwanted thoughts that generate problems but, rather, what we do with them.
“For example, most people who have intrusive thoughts about jumping from a balcony or subway platform would think it is strange or silly to think that way, whereas a person diagnosed with OCD might worry that their thoughts are suicidal. . Patients with OCD experience these thoughts more often and feel more distress from the thoughts, but these thoughts appear to be indistinguishable from those of the general population,” Radomsky explained.
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This research could help people with obsessive-compulsive disorder not feel so different since, as we saw, these types of thoughts are extremely common. And it can also help develop evidence-based treatments that recognize that it is quite common to have intrusive thoughts.
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