Melody Jacob

It's estimated that most of us only use 10% of our brain. Is this a true statement, or is it simply another urban legend?

Many organs have more capacity than we require on a daily basis. You can live without a complete lung or kidney, as well as your appendix, thymus, and spleen, for example. However, this is not the case with the brain. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) studies indicate that humans use their whole brains on a daily basis. Some areas of the body may be more active than others at any one time or during a specific activity. However, no region of the brain is known to be entirely useless or underused.

Undesired thoughts may make you feel anxious, but they are frequent – and there are techniques you can take to deal with them.

It seems to appear out of nowhere – an odd, unsettling notion or image that appears in your head. It might be aggressive or sexual, or it could be a persistent fear of doing something wrong or embarrassing. Whatever the topic, it's usually disturbing and might make you feel worried or ashamed. The more you attempt to drive the notion out of your head, the stronger it becomes.

According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, six million Americans are estimated to be affected by intrusive thoughts.

Intrusive thoughts are sometimes linked to a mental health problem, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, in which thoughts become so annoying that they inspire recurrent activities or compulsions to avoid them. They're also frequent in post-traumatic stress disorder, which is brought on by a life-threatening or very stressful incident like an accident or a violent attack. Many people who have similar ideas, however, do not have a mental health condition, according to Dr Kerry-Ann Williams, a psychiatry instructor at Harvard Medical School.