How do I turn off the bad thoughts?

[pumpkin97]

Hi, I'm a 22 year old woman. I suffer from GAD and Depression and Ive been medicated for about four or five years. I've never experienced a very high level of anxiety, it's more like a side effect of my depression - but recently my anxiety has been so awful. I can hardly stomach food, I throw up a lot (mostly mornings) because my stomach is so unsettled, and I feel like I can't turn my brain off. I'm constantly trying to block out negative and intrusive thoughts and it's just exhausting. My brain makes up the most ridiculous scenarios and won't let me stop fixating on them. I feel like I'm going to be trapped in my own mind forever and that it will cause me to loose the people I love and end up alone.

[white knight]

Hi, welcome

Racing thought, intrusive thoughts, being unrealistic etc are all high anxiety issues. Therapy is important as I found out, in fact I had sessions in 1987 and still use his teachings daily. eg I have to remind myself if my thoughts are realistic and discount them quickly is so.

Then there is self help. Please google

Beyondblue topic anxiety, how I eliminated it

Beyondblue topic meditation words of wisdom -he helped me for 25 years- maharaji

Beyondblue topic the balance of your life

Beyondblue topic the origins of anxiety

Beyondblue topic an over active mind

Beyondblue topic what life's like at the end of the tunnel

The above threads I've written are well worth a read but you only have to read the first post.

Reply anytime

TonyWK

[Youre1]

I know what you're going through, I also have thoughts that seem impossible to switch off. What I do is go to sleep. I sleep a lot, perhaps too much. Its hard to get to sleep, but with the help of a sleeping tablet it helps. Be alone in your dreams, its a cruel world out there, but sleep helps to escape from it. Only temporarily. The other thing I did is get a hobby, I started up a worm farm. This may not be for you but as I live in a unit I cannot have other pets. Just keep busy. Gardening and weeding the nature strip gets me out and its a sense of joy to see plants flourish. I also do a fair bit of volunteering, there are many groups that do positive things for the community. Its worth a try. as a saying goes "If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you always got" Look to improve yourself, perhaps take up a short course. We educate ourselves until the end of life so maybe give that a try. Those are a few ideas that have helped me, I hope you give them a try, It might work a little bit to make life a little more pleasurable.

[smallwolf]

Hi pumpkin97,

welome to beyond blue and the reponses from the other posters have been spot on. For myself, I have apps on my phone and prayer beads. I use the prayer beads when the apps become ineffective. Also, writing the thoughts on paper works for me - sometime have a '00 thoughts in my mind is actually one thought in different forms, and by putting it to paper helps to get it out my of my head. The app I use is "virtual hope box" which was recommended to be by my psychologist. And a couple other thread on the forums you might be interested to look at are ones on grounding and mindfulness.

Hope you don't mind a couple of questions...

• What sort of distraction and coping tools do you use?
• Do you see someone professionally for therapy?
• Do you know what happened recently for things to get worse?

I am interested in your story. I hope you come back to talk some more.

Tim

[Andy999]

Hey how are you going I’m 23 and go through a lot of the same!

it really sucks how depression and anxiety can work side by side hay, it can really confuse it all and make it hard to understand how you are feeling And why you are feeling that way.

I also get a lot of intrusive negative and doubtful thoughts, it can make it so hard to just be and feel yourself, you don’t wanna think that way so you find yourself becoming so frustrated and fighting off these thoughts and feelings.

For me fighting the thoughts can sometimes help but a lot of the time I get caught further in my head no matter how ridiculous the thought may be I for some reason find it hard to convince myself of this and become stuck obsessing.

Here are some things that have helped me.

-Meditation is great, there’s plenty of great apps out there for guided meditation, I use ‘Calm’ this can really just slow you down especially at times of heightened Anxiety. You can really rewire the way you think with this to.

- accepting thoughts, I know this is a lot easier said than done, but just keep trying to accept your thoughts, don’t be hard on yourself, these things don’t go away at the snap of a finger, understand these thoughts will come and go and that they don’t define you, they are just thoughts!

-exercising and keeping busy, whether it’s socialising with people or just getting out there and doing new things, I know again this isn’t so easy for people in our positions but this can give your mind other things to think about.

-talking to people you trust is helpful to, rather then looping the same thoughts over and over in your head, actually saying them out loud to a trusted person can really take the power away from these thoughts.

i hope some of this helps you is any way, hope to hear back from you

[sunflower999]

Hi there,

Ironically, trying to make the bad thoughts go away will only make them worse. Tell yourself not to think of a pink elephant, and, of course a pink elephant will spring to mind. Neither does trying to refute the thoughts help either, it only feeds into the vicious cycle of giving them your attention, thus signifying their importance to your mind, and over time wearing a sort of "track" in your mind, which will make way for the same type of thoughts as the response to them is so fearful. The biggest thing you can do is practising acceptance, and busy yourself whenever something is bothering you. Take the time to immerse yourself in a movie and practice focusing your attention fully on it, that kind of thing. So, when you notice a pattern of negative/intrusive thoughts, watch it float by like a cloud and choose to turn your attention to other, more useful thoughts. Sometimes you will have to sit with the fear your thoughts are causing you, but try not to let it disturb your day, just go about things as normal. Also try and exercise every day if you can, something intense like running - this will help to tire you out and give you a mood boost. Meditation is also a big help.

Best of luck and hope you are doing alright at the moment 🙂