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Extraneous thoughts swarm in our head all the time – this is how a healthy human brain works. But what could those thoughts be?
Many will say that obsessive thoughts arise in them by chance, through some chains of obscure associations. But some people especially often have thoughts related to a particular topic, such as numbers. A person can constantly mentally count something – for example, his steps or the steps of a ladder. Or items of clothing when he puts them in the closet, and, for example, strictly in batches of ten pieces.
A simple Internet search will reveal many forums, comments, and blog posts describing such phenomena. One explanation is that this is how the brain keeps active during boring or repetitive activities. This is one of the causes of obsessive thoughts.
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Psychiatrist David Veale of King’s College London likens this obsessive billing to “sticky” melodies that constantly spin in the head – it may just be a way to keep the brain busy during “downtime”.
British psychiatrist Paul McLaren offers another explanation – such thoughts are a kind of mental ritual.
“Intrusive thoughts are evolutionarily beneficial because they helped our ancestors prepare for future dangers. It’s like a psychological immune system,” he says. This is why common obsessive thoughts and rituals, such as the fear of pollution, are linked in one way or another to potential threats. Therefore, before the question “how to cope with obsessive thoughts” was not raised.
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Intrusive thoughts may also have evolved as a way to strengthen social bonds. “The propensity for behavioral rituals can promote social cohesion, and this has a clear evolutionary advantage,” says Paul McLaren.
In the life of every person there is a period when obsessive thoughts and ritual behavior appear – usually it covers the age from 2 to 4 years. Toddlers often come up with ritual rules for themselves – for example, do not step on cracks in the asphalt, or develop rituals associated with going to bed or eating – perhaps this helps them give some meaning to the world around them, which is still completely new to them and which they have no control over. At this age, according to Paul McLaren, “we need order, we like it when nothing changes.” For some, this desire lasts a lifetime.
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Intrusive thoughts become a problem when they are impossible to get rid of: they begin to cause great discomfort and interfere with effective functioning. For example, a compulsive counting may be a symptom of obsessive-compulsive disorder—the irrational desire to defend against a hypothetical threat by counting only becomes stronger when the threat is never realized—as if we had successfully protected ourselves from it with the help of a ritual.
Since the propensity for such rituals and obsessive thoughts has evolved to protect against various threats, they are more likely to occur in a state of anxiety and stress. “We are more prone to obsessive-compulsive phenomena (obsessive thoughts and rituals) during stressful periods, for example, we begin to count objects around us more often,” explains Paul McLaren.
See more at editions of New Scientist.