yehudisha:

Impulsive thoughts or urges: I should eat paper/a leaf/some dirt, I should kick that thing really hard, I should engage in this risky sexual behavior, I should yell really loudly, I should dig at my skin or pull out my hair, I should commit a risky behavior that could get me hurt, etc 

(aka the strong urge to do something irrational that comes out of nowhere OR is triggered by stress/an episode of a mental illness – can range from silly/stupid to serious and scary) 

Intrusive thoughts: *horrible thoughts of family dying in graphic ways* *unwanted sexual thoughts about strangers* *thoughts about loved ones hating you / betraying you / leaving you* *repetitive visceral thoughts about past trauma, often deceivingly self incriminating* *suddenly being convinced you’re dying of a rare disease* etc 

(aka unwanted thoughts popping into your head and triggering you/making you feel disgusted/scared/panicky/ashamed. thoughts that would not normally rationally be in your head, things you would never think intentionally. with people with OCD these can also be tied to compulsions)

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both can be mental illness symptoms. both can effect people’s lives. both are often mixed up with each other (i.e those “intrusive thought” posts about “I should just eat a leaf” are actually about impulses) and that can be alienating misinfo for people who struggle with one or the other to see, so I’m trying to spread more accurate info as someone who has both symptoms. not all impulsive thoughts are intrusive thoughts, but some intrusive thoughts can include impulses.

**sidenote about impulsive thoughts / urges – while sometimes a mental illness / trauma symptom, they can also happen more often if you have a certain neurotype like being autistic or having ADHD. my autism makes the percentage of random/stupid impulses (eat paper, yell, etc) that fly into my head higher, as well as giving me more pesky ones like impulses to pull out my hair or punch things when I go through sensory overload.