"Intrusive thoughts" are disturbing thoughts, bad thoughts, and ugly images that dominate one's mind in an uncontrollable way, so that they become obsessive with them, leading to annoyance, distress, anxiety and stress.
René Nowak, a German psychotherapist, explains that intrusive thoughts are usually associated with some mental disorders, such as: post-traumatic stress disorder, depressive disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, as well as physical dysmorphic disorder, anxiety disorder, eating disorder, or psychosis.
Psychotherapist Nowak explained that these "intrusive thoughts" can be confronted through psychotherapy, as the psychotherapist explains to the patient during cognitive behavioral therapy that these disturbing thoughts are nothing more than obsessions, and helps him get rid of them by teaching him how to evaluate thoughts and their significance, more objectively, and see the difference between thoughts and actions.
The idea of killing someone, for example, is "intrusive," but it doesn't constitute murder, according to psychotherapist Nowak.
By confronting intrusive thoughts and seeing them for what they are, which is nothing more than a pure "mind game", they lose their power over the patient's mind.