In psychology, the intrusive thought is one that seems to pop into your mind from nowhere —uninvited, unwanted, and often disturbing.

For patients with anxiety disorders, they may embody someone’s worst fears. One woman complained that whenever she crossed a bridge, her mind abruptly filled with images of falling to her doom. That sometimes triggered a panic attack.

Another patient, diagnosed with OCD, found herself automatically counting her own steps whenever she went for a walk. She had to consciously order herself to stop counting.

With addictions, of course, intrusive thoughts are often about a return to drug use. They may arrive in the wake of a vivid dream, and contribute to relapse.

I view them like those annoying pop-up ads that appear on websites and social media — there solely to promote an impulse purchase of something the viewer doesn’t actually need or want. In the case of addiction, the “product” being marketed is drugs.

”I figure all those years using, I was really training my brain that I couldn’t live without them,” one aftercare patient admitted. “So after I quit, my poor brain kept sending me messages, that I should hurry up and give it some more of what it thought it needed.”

How best to deal with intrusive thoughts? The consensus approach, as far as I can determine, is a straightforward one, involving “three ‘R’s.”

  • Recognize the thought for what it really is  — something from your subconscious that represents an undesirable lifestyle you’re now determined to leave behind. “I remind myself that I’ve moved on,” one woman said. “A part of my brain has yet to figure that out. But given time, it will.”
  • Remember that intrusive thoughts are by nature short-lived, transitory. They’ll go away by themselves. No need to make them leave, only to let them go. “I had a lot of bad thoughts early on,” one man reported . “So my motto was, this too shall pass. And it did.”
  • Refrain from criticizing yourself for having had such thoughts. They’re part of recovery — evidence that you’re still changing, but now, in a good way.

The goal, then, is to learn to manage intrusive thoughts so that they don’t interfere with your recovery, your health or your happiness. At some point, your poor brain will get the message and decide, at last, to stop bothering you.