This is super dark, but I often imagine ways

I COULD POISON MY FAMILY AND FRIENDS when I’m cooking dinner for them. I love them, so why do I think this way?

Sometimes things lurking in the darkest part of our subconscious – torture, death, doing really nasty things to our mother-inlaw – just bubble up, says Hilfer. “It’s a fleeting thought, a dark part that a lot of us keep repressed, and every so often it kind of pokes through and we think, Gee, that’s weird.”

Why do we fantasise about running someone over on the pedestrian crossing? Maybe it’s because we recognise how fragile life is: one bad decision on our part and it’s curtains!

Or it could be a result of latent anger. “There may be some kind of aggression that hasn’t been addressed,” says Dr Schaub. Maybe the would-be poisoner is sick of cooking for people who never reciprocate.

“It doesn’t mean she really wants to kill them; the thought is just a metaphor,” he says. It’s simmering, like dinner – with some extra-special seasoning. N or N Rating: 3 You’re nuts – if you actually want to murder them. If it’s based on anger, address that. Otherwise, don’t worry about it.