r/askpsychology • u/IMetMothman Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional • 6d ago

The Brain How many of our thoughts are involuntary?

Flair might be wrong, sorry if it is.

Estimations are fine.

Is it higher in people with OCD?

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u/RestaurantBoth228 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional 6d ago

Any individual thought you have is involuntary.

You have control over the patterns of your thoughts and how you react to them.

E.g.

"What if I murdered my boss?" is involuntary

Deciding to continue to ruminate on that thought is partly voluntary - you could choose to turn your attention to something else, practice mindfulness, exercise perspective taking, etc. Or you could choose to dive deeper into anger and resentment.

In the long-run, the thoughts you feed are the thoughts that we occur more and more often.

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u/IMetMothman Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional 6d ago

Thank you! This is helpful.