When that horrible thought pops into your head.

You are playing a game of cards with some friends. The atmospher is light, there is banter and conviviality. Theh while you are have a few words with the person beside you, suddenly you have this unwanted thought. Perhaps this thought is horror of horrors explicily and discomfortingly sexual in nature. Perhaps it is nothing to do with sex, but the thought is so horrible that if your were to share it people might question your sanity.

So what do you do? Most people will endeavour to refocus, to repress this horrible invasive thought. It is a daunting task because the more you dismiss the
thought the more Rasputin like it pops up.

But if you are like most people you carry on the conversation you were
 ostensibly having without reference to this bloody daunting thought.

Maintaining your sanity for most people then is about appearing to be undisturbed
by one's most disturbing thoughts. And with great effort you suppress what you
are not able to say.

Funny old world, isn't it.