Partner's intrusive thoughts mildly concern me

[Kate8889]

My partner sometimes (once a year or so) will share an intrusive thought with me, being sure to tell me it's an intrusive thought and not something he'd actually do.

These thoughts are pretty dark, and he does this as a way to I guess marvel at how odd the brain can be.

Would this bother you?

It really depends, OP. I have OCD. I get very intrusive thoughts. I get thoughts around harming my baby. I get thoughts around stabbing myself and others. I get thoughts about driving me and my child off a bridge. A common one for me is around being a serial killer. I'm personally very distressed by them. I find them torturous. I'd never ever act on them though, and it is unfortunately just a part of my mental illness. If I could take them away, I would.

Ironically I'm also a mental health nurse 😂 Lots of people have intrusive thoughts, and not just people with OCD. There is a clear distinction between someone who is obsessed with death and grew up hurting animals/displays violence etc, to someone who just experiences dark intrusive thoughts and is bothered by those thoughts.

I get the odd ones which I think are the imp of the perverse ones I’ve read, like if I’m pouring a kettle of hot water into a sink, wanting to put my hand in it or to touch a candle flame etc
I had one that really bothered me about harming myself, walked straight down to the doctors where they took all my medication off me, put me onto daily visits for them and upped my Citalopram and I’ve been fine since