What are intrusive, persistent thoughts that cause anxiety called?

Intrusive, persistent thoughts that cause anxiety are known as obsessions. This term is used in the context of mental health, particularly in obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), where individuals experience repetitive, unwanted thoughts that generate significant distress. These obsessions often lead to a sense of urgency or compulsion to perform certain behaviors to alleviate the anxiety they cause, but the thoughts themselves are primarily what create the emotional discomfort.

Understanding the nature of obsessions is crucial for recognizing how they differ from other concepts such as phobias, which are irrational fears of specific objects or situations, or compulsions, which are the repetitive behaviors or mental acts people feel driven to perform in response to their obsessions. Delusions, on the other hand, are fixed false beliefs that are resistant to reason or confrontation with actual fact and typically relate to a person’s perception of reality rather than being anxiety-inducing thoughts.

By identifying the correct term, "obsessions," we can better grasp how these thoughts function within the framework of anxiety disorders and their treatment in music therapy and other therapeutic practices.