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Original poster

Anyone have flash visions of an accident happening?

38 replies

FindingMeno · 16/03/2022 22:00

I'll be minding my own business, then suddenly a very real vision of the dog screaming in pain, or me falling down a flight of stairs, or similar will happen in a flash.
Does anyone else get this?

OP posts:
Hollyhead · 16/03/2022 22:02

Yes, quite regularly, I find them very upsetting. I can also experience flashes of bereavement where for a split second I genuinely believe DH or the DC to have been killed in ana accident and I go through the extreme pain of the emotional reaction. I’ve learnt to push the intrusive thoughts out as much as possible by not fuelling them.

squishmycherry · 16/03/2022 22:03

Yes I do and I belive they're called intrusive thoughts.

Bagelsandbrie · 16/03/2022 22:03

Yes I get this. I put it down to part of my OCD / anxiety - it’s an intrusive thought pattern. The key is to stop them before they take hold. I try to stop myself mid thought and think about something else (not always easy)! Mine are mainly about tripping down stairs or choking.

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General health
stayathomegardener · 16/03/2022 22:04

Yes.

Octomore · 16/03/2022 22:06

Occasional intrusive thoughts are normal, but are these particularly frequent or severe?

scrivette · 16/03/2022 22:08

Yes I get this quite a lot, intrusive thoughts. It's often falling down the stairs or driving off a bridge I frequently go over.

Original poster
FindingMeno · 16/03/2022 22:09

@Octomore I wouldn't say particularly frequent.
They are fleeting and realistic but not what I would think of as severe.

OP posts:
mswales · 16/03/2022 22:16

Yes they are known as intrusive thoughts and are very common. I get them both of accidents and of something awful being done to me like being pushed in front of a train, or sometimes of me doing something awful to someone else. They're horrible! But so common and nothing really to worry about unless they're really negatively affecting your life

Pearlyqueen21 · 16/03/2022 22:18

@scrivette

Yes I get this quite a lot, intrusive thoughts. It's often falling down the stairs or driving off a bridge I frequently go over.
Exactly the same here: every time I go down stairs I have a flash thought of falling down, and every time I drive over/round some ‘spaghetti junction’ roads near me I have a vision of me taking the angle wrong and driving through the side barrier (and plunging onto the road/into the river below). I didn’t realise this happened to other people! I thought I was just really morbid! I should say I don’t find them upsetting, they’re very fleeting and I’m very used to them. I think knowing they’re coming helps to remain calm and ‘in the real world’ IYKWIM.
LizBennet · 16/03/2022 22:29

Yes, as pp said it's part of my OCD.

Fcuk38 · 16/03/2022 22:32

Yes, I had for years thoughts of my husband dying. Scenarios would play out in my head of how it would happen.

Unfortunately it came true.

StripyOnesie · 16/03/2022 22:34

Yes. I get this. Sometimes they are horrific and last a while. Only just realised in the last couple of weeks that these are classed as "intrusive thoughts". They mainly centre around fire/choking /being raped/my children or close family member dying/car crash. Or that I've killed someone and that the body is about to be discovered after years. (This one was particularly bad, at one point I was convinced I had actually done so and the guilt was crippling)

IhateJan22 · 16/03/2022 22:38

Does everyone get these? I’ve noticed mine are getting worse and I hate it.

IhateJan22 · 16/03/2022 22:38

@Fcuk38

Yes, I had for years thoughts of my husband dying. Scenarios would play out in my head of how it would happen.

Unfortunately it came true.

❤️
runsmidgeOMG · 16/03/2022 22:44

Yes fleetingly.... I'd never thought of them as intrusive thoughts though so this thread is making me think.

I'm an over thinker. I can't claim to have ever suffered poor mental health and the suggestion that I do would be an insult to those who genuinely suffer.

I thought at Xmas my DD would die in a car crash en route to visit her GM with ex and I'd have to look at her unplayed with presents. It was a total relief when I received the text to say they'd arrived home.

I'm due to travel via channel tunnel in the next few months. I keep thinking there will be a leak or an attack on it and we'll drown.

I work in the health profession and some decisions stay with me for hours after each shift even though I'm telling myself they're perfectly safe, justified and best practice and that I documented everything. But my mind occasionally creeps to the worst case scenario which would never happen.

These thoughts don't affect me for long. I tell myself I'm over thinking and if I'm distracted I forget about them. Sometimes they pop back, sometimes they don't. I'm generally a really happy person.

Will definitely be watching this thread with interest.

BlackboardMonitorVimes · 16/03/2022 22:45

I get these. I have them intensely when I am near steep drops such as cliffs or ferries. So much so that claim to have a fear of heights. I don't have a fear of heights, I have a fear of the intrusive thoughts and their force. I call it my inner lemming tendency.

BlackboardMonitorVimes · 16/03/2022 22:46

*that I claim

HelpMeHiveMind · 16/03/2022 22:49

Yes I get them of the car crashing

JayAlfredPrufrock · 16/03/2022 22:51

No. Thank goodness.

Original poster
FindingMeno · 16/03/2022 22:51

Yes, the car I'm in crashing is one too.

OP posts:
southlondoner02 · 16/03/2022 22:55

Yes I get these. Particularly around falling/ pushing someone under a train and being run over by a car.

They used to really worry me then a few years ago I read a thread on here and realised I wasn't alone which really helped.

I find the best way of dealing with them is letting them wash over me. I know they aren't real but if I try to push them to the back of my mind they come back. If I let them continue in the knowledge they are just thoughts but not real they stop

Workinghardeveryday · 16/03/2022 22:56

@Fcuk38 I am so sorry xxx

SunshinePie · 16/03/2022 22:58

I’ve found practising Mindfulness helps. There’s some good apps like Headspace and Calm. It’s retraining your brain to stay present in the “here and now” and not live in the past (depression) or future (anxiety). By bringing back thoughts to represent moment it helps stop intrusive ones occurring so frequently.

Goofbawl · 16/03/2022 22:58

I get this! Bjork wrote song lyrics about it “I imagine what my body would sound like, slamming against those rocks…”
I’ve always done that if I’m near cliffs.

Sebastianthecoo · 16/03/2022 22:59

I have always had this but never given it a name, intrusive thoughts sounds right. I don’t have ‘flashes’ as such but terrible scenarios that I play in my head. If I can’t get a hold of my DH and he’s late home I think he’s died in a car crash and worry what I will do if the police come to tell me when my DC are still up. I can be right through to funeral planning then he will walk in the door.

They have been so bad recently I’ve thought of calling my GP.

When all is well I don’t get nearly as much, but life is hard just now for most of us Flowers