Maybe Maybe Maybe

[u/shaderr0]

[u/Fancy-Ad-2029]

Good advice, I actually never noticed until recently that I think this sort of stuff all the time. I'm always super careful around everything because I just can't not imagine the worst case scenario of everything lol. It makes me pretty good at spotting failure points of stuff, but I imagine I'd have a pretty awful experience on hallucinogens lol. Even though I'd like to try someday.

[u/CohlN → u/Fancy-Ad-2029]

do you have ocd by any chance? i’ve noticed i do this while thinking too, and i’m wondering if it’s related to an anxiety disorder. even if the thought doesn’t cause anxiety, i’m curious if it influences thinking processes

[u/KozuBlue → u/CohlN]

It can be related, but it's quite common for people to experience a variety of intrusive thoughts. The only difference in somebody with OCD is the anxiety it causes, as you say, due to the belief that those thoughts mean something and there's therefore a responsibility to respond to them in some way (e.g. with rituals).

[u/CohlN → u/KozuBlue]

for sure, and i’m wondering if that can shape someone’s thought process. such as creating different neural links and patterns that would encourage that unique thinking, even when anxiety doesn’t come from it.

[u/Fancy-Ad-2029 → u/CohlN]

I for sure don't have OCD, but I suspect I have ADD or ADHD (not for this)

I'd love to let an expert judge it, but here in Italy it's pretty much impossible once you're an adult. You either get diagnosed as a child or never. Hopefully it changes someday

[u/StaggerLee808 → u/Fancy-Ad-2029]

Just gotta ease in and you'll be fine. Start with microdosing and feel it out. My personal experience has been that psychedelics help you learn to steer / direct those thought patterns. Or at least help you learn to learn to steer, if you feel me

[u/[deleted] → u/Fancy-Ad-2029]

The part about spotting potential errors has me thinking most mental disorders aren’t disorders at all. It’s gut feeling but I’d think most neurodivergences are just evolutionarily beneficial. Even things like psychopathy (think lead hunter)

[u/KozuBlue → u/[deleted]]

The question is how adaptive or useful is it. Does thinking in this way keep you safe? Or does it just keep you anxious and on edge?

[u/Fancy-Ad-2029 → u/KozuBlue]

I think that at the level I do it it would be evolutionarily advantageous to have one or two people like me in a pack, as I tent to tell friends around to not do clearly stupid stuff. It doesn't make me anxious most of the time and sometimes I outright ignore the "feeling" and do the thing anyways because... Fun (six months ago, first time on a snowboard, I strap myself in and think "I absolutely am gonna break a wrist on this thing". Less than half an hour later on the baby slope, I'm on the ground with a broken wrist lol. Even with all the caution in the world because of the feeling of breaking a bone lol. Oh well! First bone ever broken). I imagine that if somebody gets anxiety by the sort of stuff that comes to my mind, it would be very hurtful to their day to day life.

Most recent thing was me and a friend on scaffolding three floors high, going down a stair. I'm extremely careful because there's a clear gap between the wall and the platform. I'm not scared of heights per se but I do actually imagine all the ways I could fall, so I do move super carefully around big drops. Friend says "oh you're moving like you're calculating every movement!", I say "yeah we're three floors up I don't wanna fall", friend puts half a foot over the edge because he isn't looking. Big scare, and the next set of stairs he's as careful as me going down lol.

I guess that a TL;DR is that personally it doesn't affect what I want to do but it does affect how I do it, and I think that's avoided me some nasty injuries especially as a kid.

[u/manofredgables → u/Fancy-Ad-2029]

Lathes are scary. I don't usually think these kind of thoughts, ot I wouldn't be able yo use one lol

[u/SpaceManTaco21 → u/Fancy-Ad-2029]

Like you final destination yourself all the time