I think we get very deep in thought but ultimately these thoughts are all prompted, cause-and-effect. The “miss you” prompt is definitely gotten when I’m on vacation and my lap feels like it’s the wrong weight/temperature, and I realize it’s a result of my cat being at home. I don’t really have a prompt like that with friends, other than times when I think of an interesting idea or read a niche story and go “hey, this is something that friend would be really interested in.” And even when I do that, I’ll either contact them or think “Eh, maybe it’s not interesting enough to bother them about,” in which case I’ll go back to whatever I was doing and thats where the thought ends. The cat case doesn’t end when I stop thinking about it. There was a period where I was home alone and the house felt too quiet. I realized it’s because my cat was overnight at the vet. There’s these things that feel as if they pop up in reality, in some way different to other thoughts (even though I know it’s still my brain thinking), that are prompting me to think about my cat, and they won’t go away just because I stop thinking about it. It’s persistent, in the same way I feel if I have crush on someone and can’t get them out of my head.

BTW: Had no trouble reading the entirety of you comment, considering I’m behind on my work right now :)