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greenpea
Senior Contributor

trigger warning violent thoughts

Hey everyone firstly I must say a huge thank you to Sane forums for being able to address issues like this as it is not something that you can just talk to anyone about not even your doctors sometimes...... I was wondering do people here have violent thoughts? I do at times. They play out in my head and some of them are quite shocking to me that I would find them soothing when I am thinking of them. Does anyone else have violent thoughts which they find calming? I have never had thoughts like this before my mi so I think it is a mi thing for me. I have spoken to my pdoc about some of these thoughts but not all of them and will stay on my meds etc but was just wondering is it normal to have these thoughts? or is it a mi thing. pea

13 REPLIES 13

Re: trigger warning violent thoughts

Thanks for raising the topic @greenpea.
I think there are different types of violent thoughts that people can have, and like everything it's a bit of a spectrum between what's "normal" versus a sign of poor mental health.
In my opinion the main "normal" type I would describe as situational/intrusive, where the brain just comes up with a possible scenario related to what's going on around the person even though it's not a thing that they actually want to do (and it could be the last thing that they really want to happen).
It might also be "normal" to have violent revenge-type thoughts when a person has been hurt or wronged or sees injustice of some kind.
Mental illness can change how we think and feel about some of these thoughts and how we respond to them. And yes I think it can cause them to pop up more often and obviously or even cause them to pop up in the first place. I'm glad to hear that you're going to stay on your medication and are taking about the thoughts with your pdoc - that's the best way to manage them and make sure that you're addressing them in a healthy and safe way.

Re: trigger warning violent thoughts

Hey @greenpea. I too think it's so good to have a place where we can have these conversations.

I have pretty full on thoughts at times and like you I can find them soothing in a way. That I find it soothing can cause all kinds of weird feelings on top of the weird feelings for having the thoughts in the first place 😏 People I work with tell me that they understand suicidal thoughts can be kind of calming as it's like having an option when it feels like there are no options (that might sound super twisted but I find it tricky to explain properly in written words). Maybe violent thoughts can be kind of the same.

I think my thoughts of these kinds would fall mostly into the 'revenge' kind of category that @TheVorticon mentioned in that 👍 post above, though they can pop up in situations I feel stuck in. Feeling 'stuck' is a trigger for me and thoughts/fantasies are a way of coping with that for me at times I guess. Perhaps where it could be really serious is if it felt like it could become more than thoughts and they could turn into actions. A big flag for me would be if I had to fight not to act on those thoughts.

I think it's probably pretty common (normal) for people to think all kinds of things but maybe MI or MH challenge kind of stuff can make those thoughts big or intense, more frequent and can make it feel harder to stop them from becoming actions. I think, like TheVorticon said, MI can influence how we respond to those thoughts too.

It is really good that you've spoken about them with your psych. I know they feel less unnerving to me when I've talked about them with my psych. Have you asked your psych about their ideas on 'normal' or not?

Glad you posted about this.

Re: trigger warning violent thoughts

Yes @greenpea . They're like movies that play out in my head - definitely revenge & what really bothers me, is that for a few seconds it'll feel like . . . 'of course, why didn't I think of that before, that's exactly what I need to do', until I realize how very wrong I'm thinking . . . & then I feel so ashamed. But these 'movies' have played my whole life, I never acted on them - I took to booze & drugs instead. Maybe that's why those substances were so hard & took so long for me to give up?

Lots of love to you Sweet Greenpea Heart

Re: trigger warning violent thoughts

@greenpea   I have violent thoughts - I call it my “fantasy”.

 

There are a few people in my life I wish weren’t - and it is soothing to think these people come to a pretty abrupt end.  It’s a fantasy because even though I wish them to be gone, these thoughts are something I would never actually act on - it’s just nice to think about sometimes. 

 

Thinking about violence (that you’d never actually act on), doesn’t make you a bad person, or even a violent person - the same as thinking about winning tattslotto doesnt make you a millionaire.  

 

Our brains are wonderful things, it allows us to fantasise, to play out a situation that ends the way we want it to, and to feel good about it even though we know it won’t ever happen.

 

Nothing wrong with that, or even unusual.  

Re: trigger warning violent thoughts

@CheerBear  Hey CheerBear yes I have mentioned my thoughts to my pdoc and she was great and told me I was a good person but have a mi which means there are certain things I can never do or have for example have a gun licence (not that I would ever want one but you get where I am coming from) Smiley Wink.

Re: trigger warning violent thoughts

@greenpea  I would say for me it dont tend to get the revenge thoughts i do get intrusive thoughts but they never feel like something i want to do or would even consider doing. actually quite the oposite i go to great lengths to avoid even possibly doing anything that could even lead to the intrusive thoughts. but i would argue there is a third category of violent thoughts in relation to self defense. these i think are harder to identify but the only time i have actually considered the possiblity that i could do something (even a small thing) was in the instances of self defence but even then i only would get to that stage if i had run out of other options including violence towards myself to "get out" so to speak. but when it has hit that point i tend to dissasociate anyway. so for me it would only really be the intrusive kind. 

 

I do think though for some people particularly those who are more comfortable sitting in anger than pain they can turn to those toughts or their brain can conjure them up as a way to escape or find a way to control the situation that is causing the pain/distress. this is where i would say the revenge thoughts come into it a bit but also i realy do think any of those thoughts come out of a need to gain control of a situation where someone feels under threat for whatever reason after all that is why people go to war. I dont think that for humans those thoughts are uncommon the difference is i guess if someone is willing to cross that line of thinking to doing that makes it become a problem. perhaps people with mental health issues are already so critical of themselves that they struggle to not feel guilty about the thoughts and guilt turns to pain which just fuels the whole thing. but thats just my opinion.  

Re: trigger warning violent thoughts

@Eden1919 @Razzle @Exoplanet @CheerBear @TheVorticon  and all those who supported this post a big thank you. I am feeling pretty alienated at the moment and your words really have helped. Will definitely talk to my pdoc about it when I next see her. Love to you all. peaxxx

Re: trigger warning violent thoughts

@greenpea  ... 👍💕

Re: trigger warning violent thoughts

@greenpea  I’ve thought of how to replyhere, but I find it hard to put words and thoughts together, without triggering other readers.

So, yes, I do have thoughts like this. I do talk some through with my counsellor. She has always been positive in saying, thoughts never hurt anyone.

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