Confronting the Call of the Void: A Gamer’s Perspective on Understanding Intrusive Thoughts
As a passionate gamer, I’m no stranger to the allure of simulated risk and confronting death, even if only my avatar’s. The call of the void that whispers we jump from heights crosses wires between virtual worlds where I respawn endlessly and reality where I don’t. By investigating psychology behind intrusive thoughts, we see how they manifest across both domains.
I. Defining the Call of the Void and Intrusive Thoughts
The eerie phenomenon labeled “the call of the void” describes intrusive thoughts or impulses urging us toward destructive behaviors. Like an imaginary voice compelling a person peering over a balcony to leap off despite not being suicidal. Or never having desired to self-harm before an abrupt graphic vision of stabbing oneself.
Colloquially dubbed “high places phenomenon,” most associate intrusive thoughts with heights. After all, examples portrayed prominently feature standing on the edge of dizzying precipices. Yet emerging research shows a range of triggers and thought content.
Prevalence across groups implies an underlying mechanism in humans. In nonclinical samples, upwards of 90% of people report experiencing occasional intrusive thoughts while 25% have them regularly (Purdon, 2008). Those with diagnosed conditions like anxiety, OCD and PTSD battle more violent, graphic and persistent ideation. But millions worldwide know intrusive thoughts even without mental illness.
II. Psychological Basis for Intrusive Thoughts
Cognitive behavioral frameworks attempt explaining the discordant, disturbing thoughts. In OCD, harm obsessions manifest as part of having perfectionistic beliefs reliant on maintaining strict control (Wilhelm, 2014). Starting medication like antidepressants may also temporarily worsen symptoms.
But intrusive thoughts in the general public often arise without identifiable triggers. Theories point to false alarms where the evolutionarily old amygdala flags potential threats before the more advanced prefrontal cortex can assess actual danger (LeDoux, 1996). So we get the signals of anxiety before realizing we misinterpreted them.
Brain imaging scans show amygdala activation when alarming content elicits distress over intrusive thoughts (Bourne, 2013). Those prone to harm obsessions demonstrate amygdala hyperactivity along with reduced connectivity with emotion regulation regions (Harrison, 2009). As someone likely wired to seek stimulation, this might explain my attraction to horror games while recoiling when imagining gore outside them.
Fusing psychoanalytic notions of violent impulses bubbling up from the subconscious, some intrusions may even have evolutionary utility. Simulating threats empowers assessing how to confront them for survival benefits (Boysen, 2009). Of course, the signals backfire when prompted by irrational triggers like heights.
III. Heightened Risk Factors and Common Thought Content
While most experience occasional intrusions, certain variables raise risks for combating more frequent or upsetting ones. Those with existing mood and trauma disorders are overrepresented. Harm obsessions spike postpartum likely due to anxiety and sleep deprivation. Stresses like financial or relationship instability also serve as emotional triggers. Personality traits related to low serotonin including neuroticism and impulsiveness correlate as well (Boccara, 2019).
Surveys reveal trends in disturbing thought content across groups. Violent imagery such as stabbing or attacking loved ones ranks disturbingly high even among healthy individuals. Sexual themes and taboos also emerge frequently (Clark, 2014).ncontent Concerning harm against children proves especially shameful and scary.
For parents, typical examples mirror fears around dropping their baby. Non-parents envision more purposeful acts of violence they’d never actually consider doing. Variability across samples shows the inherent range of human fears and intrusions.
IV. Extreme Sports: Dopamine, Danger and the Thrill Paradigm
Seeking out potentially lethal real-world risks for the adrenaline rush demonstrates another manifestation of height psychology. While most recoil from intrusive thoughts of falling off cliffs, some canyon swing from them for thrills. Rather than dread heights as perilous, the latter leap towards the stomach-dropping feeling they provide.
Recent theories explore relationships between dopamine and distorting risk/reward perceptions (Lemenager, 2022). Evolution primes us to repeat life-sustaining behaviors involving eating and reproduction by associating them with dopaminergic highs. Adrenaline junkies co-opt the same pathways in response to cheating death.
The psychology at play shares parallels with gaming. Logging endless hours chasing achievements to stimulate another hit of accomplishment-based dopamine. Relishing fear and uncertainty when battling relentless multiplayer opponents. For most, discomfort from virtual threats provides enjoyably harmless doses of stimulation. But for a few, only navigating threats in reality satiates.
V. Existential Underpinnings: The Burden and Allure of Freedom
Beyond biological explanations, existential philosophies also provide perspective on intrusive thoughts. Danish thinker Kierkegaard notably grappled with anxiety arising from recognizing one’s own freedom to define purpose outside prescribed schema (Kierkegaard, 1844).
While liberation from societal expectations offers creativity in shaping identity, it also demands accepting consequences of choices. In facing the call of the void when overlooking fatal drops, that vast responsibility to direct one’s own fate fuels panic. With infinite alternate paths to follow, how select the “right” one?
Sartre and other existentialists deemed this “condemnation to freedom” a chaotic burden (Sartre, 1956). Lacking awareness of all our mental processes driving thoughts and actions, the suddenness of intrusions jolts. And in constantly navigating decisions nonetheless weighted with meaning, uncertainty breeds anguish about fixed characterizations of self.
Hence intrusive visions conjuring potential disaster reflect struggles in charting life’s course. The call of the void embodies fears of squandering freedom or suffering from its obligations. Simultaneously, exercising autonomy by daring to approach the void proves alluring.
VI. Practical Applications: Mindfulness, Media and Destigmatization
Despite alarm stirred by imagining horrific fates befalling loved ones or oneself, current research fortunately eases stigma about harm intrusions lacking intent. Confronting upsetting thoughts with mindful nonjudgment helps alleviate associated distress (Haque, 2022). Note their arrival, accept discomfort simply exists in minds with such evolved complexities, then return focus to the present.
Cultural influences also require consideration regarding violent imagery. Does pervasive media violence—even in beloved gaming—somehow implicitly sanction imagined aggression as more permissible? Additional studies on desensitization effects could inform useful regulations.
Increasing representation of intrusive thoughts across entertainment media and celebrities openly discussing their own could help normalize occurrences for anxious sufferers. Revelations that even the rich and famous have battled the call of the void suggests it may speak to a shared vulnerability of the human condition.
Conclusion: Grappling with the Duality of Imagined Risks
Why do our minds generate thoughts antithetical to our conceptions of self and interests in survival? The call of the void raises such ontological uncertainty. While most make peace by dismissing intrusions as meaningless noise, existential angst lingers.
I don’t know whether my attraction to simulated risk and rush of games numbs or amplifies my intrusive thoughts. But investigating their psychological underpinnings and place within the paradoxes of consciousness brings strange comfort. We all hear, if only fleetingly, the siren song summoning us to dance along precipices separating tangible worlds from the abyss of imagination. Perhaps grappling with that duality of both creating and confronting risk defies reality’s constraints to realize our untapped potential.
References
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Sartre, J.P. (1956). Being and Nothingness. Open Road Media.
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