Intrusive thoughts

[Toby_Lace]

Hi all, this my first post. Hoping to gain some relief from persistent intrusive thoughts that have taken hold and taken control of my life. I am having troubles dislodging them. I feel if I confess the thoughts I might gain some relief but I also feel I cant tell anyone because I fear their judgement and the consequences of my confession. I feel hopeless and have little joy in my life. I have started to catastrophise about my life and career and my future. I am at a loss as what to do. I want to feel ' normal', happy and optimistic again.

[blondguy]

Hello Toby Lace

Welcome to the forums and good one having the courage to post too!

Intrusive thoughts are more common than people think. I have had chronic anxiety for years with these intrusive thoughts as well. They are a pain.....yet they are only thoughts....and a sign of a 'tired' mind

I see my GP every month for a 'fine tune' and my psychologist every 4 months which has helped me so much to 'rebuild' my old thinking patterns....including intrusive thoughts.

You will find peace of mind again Toby for sure. If you have a good GP that is a great place to start the healing process...You have everything to gain and nothing to lose 🙂

There are many gentle people on the forums that can be here for you Toby. You are more than welcome to post as many times as you like too

My kind thoughts for you Toby

Paul

[quirkywords]

Hi Toby,

welcome to the forum and thanks for sharing your thoughts.

Many people can relate to your topic.There are threads here aboutIntrusive thoughts.It is hard when you can't get thoughts out of your head.

Here is asafe non judgmental place but you could write your thoughts in a journal to see if

that would make the clearer foryou and to free them from your mind.

Have you tried meditation ormindfulness? It takes time to concentrate but it can help stop or at least Control thoughts.

Quirky

[Toby_Lace]

Thanks so much, Paul. This is great advice. I think my GP would be the first step. I need some help and feel I cant do it on my own. The forum has been great too. To know I am not alone in this struggle.

[Toby_Lace]

Thanks, Quirky. I have tried some mindfulness techniques including deep breathing and meditation. I am afraid that I am not very good at it! I find it so hard to focus and be in the moment. I keep chasing distractions but they are only quick fixes and bandaids. I need to get the thoughts out. Journaling might be a good option. Thanks for your understanding

[Doolhof]

Hi Toby,

I too welcome you to the forums. I believe many people have troubles with intrusive thoughts, this is certainly one place where you will find it is a very common occurrence and it is "quite normal" as well in the fact that it can happen to anyone.

For me, how I deal with those thoughts and beliefs is the main issue. I've shared some of my struggles in the post "Challenging Unhelpful Thoughts" . Like Quirky mentioned, there are many stories here of people trying to control, understand, conquer, move on from, ignore, acknowledge, accept, and learn from their intrusive thoughts.

Writing them down certainly helps me. As does chatting to people, my GP, psychologist, sharing here on the forum, with a trusted friend, even with myself!

I've learnt I can not always control my thoughts, I can not always turn the unhelpful into the helpful, especially right at the moment when those negative thoughts hit me the hardest.

When those thoughts come up and really hit me hard, I need to catch my breathe, take a few deep breaths, tell myself these are only thoughts!

Acknowledge the thoughts. Accept them if you can. Try to find something helpful in all the muck and hold on to that. Work out how you can think differently so life is not so hard. My psychologist told me the next step is to do something purposeful and meaningful, something that will provide me with a sense of being in control, like I have achieved something.

It may be as simple as being thankful that my mind works, not always as I desire, but it still helps me do so many things every day.

For me also, some days my "Normal" is different depending on how my day is going and what is happening around me. As long as I try to do the best I can at each moment, that is fine. If my best is just surviving, that is fine also, I am still doing something!

Cheers to you from Mrs. D or Dools

[geoff]

hello Toby, it is awful having these thoughts dictate your life, it normally happens if you have OCD, that I've had for 58 years, and yes it's horrible.
There have been some great replies back to you and thankfully there are so many other people who struggle with these damn thoughts that just won't go away, can I please ask you to google 'intrusive thoughts' there is an enormous section on this particular topic. Geoff.

[Toby_Lace]

Thanks, Mrs D. Just surviving at the moment but trying to keep it all together. It is good advice to try to get the thoughts out of my head, even if I talk to myself. Confessions can be theraputic. My main problem is that my thoughts include catastrophising over what might happen to me based on past mistakes. I have a heightened sense of responsibility - part of my OCD - and I worry infinetly about the consequences of my actions on others. It is like a constant cycle of anxiety and worry. Thank you for your advice

[Toby_Lace]

Thanks Geoff. I did some googling and you are right, lots of great resources! Thanks for the tip.

[Ulysses]

Hi there.

Know all about those darn intrusive thoughts. Have you seen the little video on the net called “is anxiety doing the talking”? Also even though I’ve had intrusive thoughts all my life, I got absolutely fed up to the brim of them recently and just got really strict and angry with them and Lo and behold I’ve just about destroyed them.