Topic: Does anyone know what this urge is called?

[goodthink]

Just curious if anyone knows what the desire/impulse is called when you encounter something harmful and overwhelmingly want to do it.


As an example, say you have bleach on your hands, and the urge to touch your eyes becomes strong because you know it's something you shouldn't do?


Or, when you are at the dentist and he is drilling you get the urge to bite down on the drill because you know you shouldn't?

[Hanes]

Or the urge to shout something that you absolutely know will get you fired?

[Jay_One]

If you obsess over these compulsions I guess you could call the urges OCD.

[DRmeg378]

I know there is a name, and I know there's a mental disorder where you actually do it. (people don't live long) It's I think a part of our brain that constantly computes the worst case scenario. Man I forgot the name... I'll do some research.

[goodthink]

Or the urge to shout something that you absolutely know will get you fired?

yerp, that too

[Puddle of Dust]

"l'appel DU vide"

… there ought to exist for the human being, in so far as he is
conscious of being, a certain mode Of standing opposite his past
and his future, as being both this past and this future and as not
being them. We shall be able to furnish  an immediate reply to this
question; it is in anguish that man gets the consciousness of his
freedom, or if you prefer, anguish is the mode of being of freedom as
consciousness of being; it is in anguish that freedom is, in its being,
in question for itself.

Kierkegaard describing anguish in the face of what one lacks
characterizes it as anguish in the face of freedom.But Heidegger,
whom we know to have been greatly influenced by Kierkegaard,
considers anguish instead as the apprehension of nothingness. These
two descriptions of anguish do not appear to us contradictory; on the
contrary the one implies the other. .

First we must acknowledge that Kierkegaard is right; anguish is
distinguished from fear in that fear is fear of beings in the world
whereas anguish is anguish before myself. Vertigo is anguish to the
extent that I am afraid not of falling over the precipice, but of
throwing myself over. A situation provokes fear if there is a
possibility of my life being changed from without; my being provokes
anguish to the extent that I distrust myself and my own reactions in
that situation.
                                                              Sartre - Being & Nothingness.

[Citizen Skeptic]

Or the urge to shout something that you absolutely know will get you fired?

yerp, that too

I've done it. Got me fired.

[goodthink]

Me too. I have also done things harmful to myself just because I couldn't resist the urge.

[Vincegamer]

if it's "overwhelming" then I think it's a mental disorder.
I get that feeling of vertigo described above - the fear I will jump if able.
I also often find myself wondering while driving what it would feel like to turn my car into the oncoming traffic or into a solid object.
I'm not overwhelmed clearly or I'd be dead now.

[Sordid]

You people are a bunch of fucking weirdos, you know that?

[pandamonium]

I've had this feeling--I want to know what it feels like to fall from a cliff, to hit a tree, etc. I call it curiosity. It has yet to kill me or any of the cats I know.

[DRmeg378]

I always "see" the worst possible thing I could do. Like, I could jump in front of that car. Or say something inappropriate. Or drop a baby I'm holding. I think it's maybe why I didn't get my driver's license - when I was driving I could see myself letting go and running into a car. Not that I would do it, but the thought crossed my mind. I think it's part of the decision making algorithm in our brains and we're not supposed to see it, but sometimes we do.

[pandamonium]

I always "see" the worst possible thing I could do. Like, I could jump in front of that car. Or say something inappropriate. Or drop a baby I'm holding. I think it's maybe why I didn't get my driver's license - when I was driving I could see myself letting go and running into a car. Not that I would do it, but the thought crossed my mind. I think it's part of the decision making algorithm in our brains and we're not supposed to see it, but sometimes we do.

They do not, in fact, bounce. 

[Citizen Skeptic]

Me too. I have also done things harmful to myself just because I couldn't resist the urge.

It's more like a catastrophic failure of self control in my case.

I didn't care about the consequences. I had to say what needed to be said. I've never had a room full of company management paying such close attention. I thought the CEO and half the people in the room where going to have the big one. LOL

[Caffiene]

They do not, in fact, bounce. 

I did.