I LITERALLY WAS LIKE "hm I wonder if sci-guys has an intrusive thoughts video, I’ve been having a lot lately" AND HERE WE ARE OMFG- (sorry I’m very excited lmao)

You see, I love how much this podcast goes into tangents... because I do that when thinking about things. Topics aren't all discrete things with no relation to one and other, so the interesting tangents you go on really add to the discussion. And it's funny, too.

Love how sometimes my brain is like “hey slap that dude randomly like right now” and then it’s also when I’m having fun late at night and my brain says “don’t hype yourself up before bed” like it’s mom wanting to ruin the party for me

24:27 I have ADHD so my go-to eye position when I zone out is just staring in one spot but my mind is still definitely racing

Hey guys, I just wanted to thank you for being critical about the topics you discuss and also explaining bias and research that doesn't hold up. It has helped me look at the research more critically and not believing everything said under the guise of scientific research. In fact quite recently a proposal was about to be entered in parliament based on bias research and non representative data and loads of assumptions. Together with scientific researchers and a legal advisor we managed to write a document which questioned the paper and caused the proposal to fall through because there wasn't enough data. So thank you for making the world a better place.

Intrusive thoughts are the reason there is the saying never judge yourself on your first thought becuase it's the reaction to that thought that really shows your character

Corry, I was reading "the darkness outside us" and my brain decided to make the main characters have your face and voice and I just want to say how glad I am that you are on earth and happy and safe

When they diagnosed me with Schizophrenia, I made the argument Luke did about religion but I was shot down. The universe opened up to me and the real world just gave me tranquillisers

I have existential ocd comes with hyper awareness of my existence and others existence and causes thoughts and feelings of things being too weird and the world being and even looking fake. More easily understood maybe with DPDR. It gives me anxiety and panic attacks and i don't want to but the thoughts come at any given time. Something as simple as watching tv and im like "oh my gosh im a human watching tv. Thats a very human thing to do. Ew what weird im a person w preferences and a personality and now im overly aware of my consciousness and having a panic attack" or similarly when having a conversation i start thinking that way about the other person and they often start to look fake as im starting to panic and slip into dpdr state. I get a weird feeling of secondhand embarrassment (the closest i can relate it to) when it comes to other people though in a couple ways, one being like when i become over aware of their existence it feels too personal/vulnerable, almost like ive just seen them naked but i know and they dont. And when seeing people, especially those w a big personality and/or really show out with their clothing, I'm like "why are you a character? Like a cartoon? Why are humans like this it's kind of ridiculous?" And that starts to feel embarrassing or too personal as well especially because i know they're not thinking about it the way i am. Which also makes me feel very alienated and difficult to ever enjoy life and being a simple human because i cant stop my brain from thinking about things the way i do even though i want to because it honestly makes my life very stressful and scary and takes simple enjoyment out of everyday things. And about my body. Being overly aware of being in a body and making me so uncomfortable that im someone i and others can perceive and relate my appearance to "me", yet i feel like I'm IN a body not my body and my body can feel not attached and not real or like, how am I controlling this form right now because it doesn't even feel like me or mine. I have other intrusive thoughts and obsessions and compulsions that are very disruptive and control my life, but i only wanted to mention the existential/over aware of existence type thoughts to maybe give insight to Luke.

Baby shark is my most intrusive thought

No, but, I'm Luke and Corry in one. Existential thoughts and thinking of thoughts that might arise. But that was during when I was in an episode, too, so..

I wonder if there is a higher percentage Existential OCD cases in people who have been raised very religiously. I know so many people who (as children) were lead to believe that, for example, the eternal salvation of their atheist friends rested upon their own ability to pray for them. It just seems like this kind of false moral responsibility and pressure could lead to other methods of attempting to change situations beyond control merely by using one's own brain. 🤔

I feel like intrusive thoughts are similar to bad dreams. In dreams, our brains combine things that we've experienced and have knowledge about into new situations. Similarly, our brain frequently just combines different pieces of information and "throws" it at us to see how we react. When a thought arises, we determine whether its something useful and true to us or not. An intrusive thought is then one of those unwanted thoughts that doesn't go away even when we decide its not useful or reasonable -- similar to a reoccurring nightmare.

Hi Sci Guys! Your are amazing. I enjoy every single podcast you release and the interjection of comedy makes it super engaging! where were you when I was in school! TEN OUT OF TEN. Thank you for gifting us with such great content and fun! especially in a not so great time.i.e covid life. booooo.

always get so excited to listen to you guys !!

Luke you have great input always. Always fascinating.👏

I love the discussion and care you guys put in this!

55:40 I get this all of the time and it's the worst because I get extremely anxious everytime I think about death so sometimes I'll start thinking about thinking about it and then it starts to trigger me and then I'm thinking about thinking about it so much that I'm just thinking about it and it's awful because I think about it a lot lol

My favorite podcast

Thanks for this ❤️ I have pretty severe anxiety right now and I’m on a waiting list for a councillor. I’m getting real sick of all this.

I found this fascinating. It made me think, the brain is excellent at pattern recognition, and I wondered how many intrusive thoughts are simply the brain putting 2 & 2 together, just because it makes a random connection?

This helped me so much, you have no idea

Oh shit didn’t even realize i was early until i tried to go thru comments

I've found that many of my intrusive thoughts can actually be projections of self-destructive/harmful behavior--so if I suppress thoughts about wanting to hurt myself, I may have intrusive thoughts about wanting to hurt others. Also, anything taboo that, as one of you said, doesn't align with how I want to see myself. I.e.--having this thought would make me a bad person, so I'm going to shut the door to wherever that came from as quickly as possible. Realizing that your thoughts do not define you can be very difficult, especially when your self-understanding has been heavily informed by Western philosophy. "I think, therefore I am" (Descartes), rather than "I am human, therefore 'I' think."

When I think of intrusive thoughts, I think of call of the void, and high place phenomenon

So i overthink everything, mixture of anxiety but also just being inquisitive, if i don't know someone i will look it up, if i recognise a voice actor in something, I will look them up, i just have to know. I also remember things not through choice, not everything, but i will remember a lot of negative stuff and also just information i dont need generally for day to day life. My partner on the other hand just doesn't really think in depth about much at all, doesn't remember a lot unless it's really specific stuff or things that are useful to his life. Honestly when hearing about Luke and Noah being almost polar opposites, i think that's just like me and my partner. He would literally just tell me not to think about something if i was getting intrusive anxious thoughts 😅 like ok, but i cant do that. Distraction is key 🤣 podcasts are great for that!! 😅

could you guys do an episode on subliminal messaging? ik some people use it for meditation but it sounds sketchy

I very much relate to the conversation about the only care with how mental health effects individuals being their contribution to society. I got diagnosed with ADHD (plus anxiety and depression) at 15 and despite my diagnosis, it's really hard to get treatment, even just therapy for ADHD symptoms, because I have great grades in school. It doesn't matter that I've been struggling with every other factor of my life (including obsessing over school and grades), and that the reason primary reason that I can keep the grades I have is because my new school doesn't assign homework and accepts latework for full credit. I try to explain that I'm awake all night trying to turn in work an hour before the final due date or that I constantly move around to an extent that is disruptive to others, but no one cares if you want help managing intense stress, constant anxiety, meticulous and borderline compulsive planning, and frequent depressive episodes as long as you have an A in math.

The whole thing about deciding to do something before you are consciously aware was a crazy mind fuck the first time I heard it on an ex-Mormon live show. It begs the question if free will is even a thing or if we only make decisions based on the allowances of our conditioning, of which we are all products. Can we do anything we never first perceived if action comes before perception? 🤯

Soooo, what you‘re telling me is that my subconscious is the Silence tell me what to do.

This episode is interesting to me because for many years I've had thoughts that I describe as intrusive which always exclusively revolve around people or characters I strongly look up to or like in some way. For context I'm autistic and the majority of these people or characters are usually related to my special interests, for example my favourite actor from a show that is my current SI etc. My brain will tend to put these people or characters in strange or degrading scenarios, for example looking at a plate of brown food and going "so-and-so just SHAT on my PLATE!". It often gets to the point where even thinking their name or face will illicit a cringe-like reaction in me, where I often have to physically 'shake off' the thought. Most commonly the thoughts come in the form of repeating the name over and over in my brain like a mantra (very much like the DON'T THINK ABOUT PINK ELEPHANTS thing). I've been struggling with this for so long and been completely in the dark about it since it's so oddly specific I wouldn't be surprised if there wasn't anyone else in the world who has quite the same person-specific intrusive thoughts. Sorry for the long comment, just wanted to put forth my experience to see if anyone else can relate or find it interesting.

I wish I didn’t relate to so much of what Luke says. 😂

Thomas Sanders has done a really great video about intrusive thoughts

The lost in thought staring is not the same as trying to hold your eyes in one place. Being lost is zoning out like you’re not in your body. And when you snap back you kinda reboot and take a deep breath

Corey has existential dread about intrusive thoughts x

I had a lot of intrusive thoughts last year and I didn't quite realise that that's what they were until this year. One time it was raining in my imaginary world and I genuinely beleived it was raining in real life which never usually happens. I hadn't gone outside yet and just thought it was raining. I was asked to put the washing up and became very confused so I looked outside and saw that it wasn't raining and went to put the washing up but as soon as I wasn't looking outside I thought it was raining again so I looked outside and saw that it wasn't raining and then I looked into the laundry and thought it was raining again until I finally went outside and saw for a long period of time that it was not raining, in fact there wasn't a cloud in the sky and I stopped thinking it was raining. It wasn't scary, just very confusing

I would sub unwanted with distressing thoughts. Mines always are lots if people I know with them, it is distressing thoughts of eg SHarm

Imaginary banana system 😂

17:53 middle school was the first time skirts were part of the uniform where i lived, until then girls and boys had the same uniform. at this middle school they instructed us to sit a certain way so that the male teachers couldnt look up our skirts and get distracted. i thought this was totally normal until i got to high school.

My ADHD intrusive thoughts can be hilarious tho, not gonna lie But also, intrusive thoughts when driving.....not great

Fuck! Stop mentioning smoking! I get it. It's the best way to describe it, but Jesus I've haven't had to fight this many cravings since day 1.

I had sleeping problems. Going through ways to help with this. If your brain has pointless thoughts coming so much that it is impossible to sleep, you can say about every 2 sec a feelingless word. Like "and" or "since". You can say it silently, but you need to move your mouth to make the word you repeat. It is impossible to think simultaniously something else and say a feelingless word over and over. I assume, not moving eyes is similar thing. You need to consentrate so much to do it that you cannot think anything else while doing it. So it would be then just complex enough thing.

56:10 CAKE "Cake"| THE CAKE IS A LIE, THE CAKE IS A LIE, THE CAKE IS A LIE, THE CAKE IS A LIE!!!! | I have ocd among other nuerodiverse differances. Some of my ocd thoughts are truama que triggered, often violent or sexual, it’s not fun, but videos like this help me understand and find peace. I love science VERY much. I love the video game Portal 1 and 2. Also hl1, and hl2. Most of the time I hyper fixate on my comfort characters. Cake!! Love to you. Bye. 🎂

Holy shit. I can’t think while controlling my eyes at all! I can hold on to a thought while concentrating on anything other thing. Except my eyes. Maybe it’s the proximity to the brain? I wonder if there’s research on it

41:33

It seems like sometimes mental illness is being confused for social constructs and personality traits..... they’re not the same thing, even if we wish to pass judgement on them equally. It’s not a comment on them being similar, it’s a call to examine why we see mental health issues as inherently negative, and therefore to conflate those issues with personality traits that we see as a social net negative. Just saying

I suppose dysphoria could be intrusive thoughts

Luke seems to have a real worrying understanding of what the purpose of meditation is and what the goals of meditation exercises are.

Sir, I DEMAND my fiat banana!

I think the reason we believe racism and greediness and similar such things as not mental illness is because they are advantageous to the believer if it is helping us how can it be a mental illness when mental illness do not help us

I have ocd and intrusive thoughts r a bitc

There was a culture like that in Germany, I think, where women were dancin naked in the fields because it was a fertility ritual.