Have you ever been alarmed at a particular thought you had?

Yea, but I’m not going to say because it’ll more than likely be misconstrued, then I’ll have to spend the whole day explaining and backpedaling lol.

You mean like thinking of violently killing the idiot that just cut you off in traffic?
Or throwing the coworker that has always pissed you off into a barrel of acid?
Or pushing the RV off the road in front of you because he is going 20mph under the speed limit and you can’t get around him?
Yeah maybe a little but I would never act on them.

Yep…

For instance:

* When I am high up on a balcony, I feel I may jump… makes no sense what so ever… I can reason it away, but the thought’s there…
* When I see a beautiful girl, I wonder how it would be to cheat on my wife with her…
* When I see somebody stand near the edge of a pool, I wonder if I could push them in…

I have a lot of wrong options float up… often… but I never really seriously considered them…

(Well maybe the one with the beautiful girl…:-) )

I think crazy thoughts all the time, but it doesn’t alarm me. I often have 2 lines of thought going simultaneously while music plays softly in my head, so I think crazy thoughts are just another version of the infinite monkey theorem. Nothing to be alarmed about, nothing to brag about, either.

Edgar Allen Poe takes up this topic in “The Imp of the Perverse”.

Oh yes. It happens multiple times a day!
@whitenoise I get that feeling when I’m high up, too. I’m afraid of heights because of it. I knew other people thought that way but I don’t understand why.

Oh yeah! More now that I am retired I spend a lot of time alone there is a lot of time to think. Sometimes I scare myself with some of the thoughts I come up with. I mean some really alarming shit.

My intrusive thoughts scare me all the time.

No, but if others could read my mind, I have no doubt that they would be rather terrified.

My dreams scare me more than any thought that occurs while awake.

I agree with Pied_Pfeffer. I’ve had some really disturbing and downright terrifying dreams. Sometimes I’m still afraid to go to sleep because I know I’ll have a scary if not weird dream.

I wouldn’t say I have been alarmed. Maybe surprised or curious. I’ve never felt compelled to actually act on some unusual or unexpected thought that pops in my head that would be detrimental to the health and well being of myself or others.

The thoughts I most worry about are thoughts of regret and how those affect me.