Is it normal to worry about a quiet mind?

[Horatia]

Normally I have a noisy mind; usually I have music or stray thoughts buzzing in my head all day, not annoying most of the time more comforting.

The times when my mind is quiet though is worrying, any thoughts I do end up having in the foreground of my mind end up dissolving into thing like 'Do my co-workers just put up with me?' or 'Would anyone even notice if I go missing? maybe my family would but would it bother them?'. That last thought is one that I've had a couple times and I know that it's not true but when my mind is quiet my thoughts always come back to that question and as such I now worry when ever my mind goes quiet.

Is this worry normal? or am i making a mountain out of a mole hill?

Please, I couldn't find anything conversations about instances like this.

Thank you,

Horatia

[geoff]

Hello Horatia, welcome to the BB forums.

I'm not qualified to say, however as I've had similar thoughts, I wonder whether you have had a diagnosis, I only say this because this could be having 'intrusive thoughts', which are thoughts that seem to become stuck in your mind, cause distress and certainly make you upset and can occur frequently.

Anxiety can cause someone to get OCD which these thoughts do happen, so we'd like to know whether this suits how you are feeling.

I have OCD and had these thoughts along with many other people, so if you can place 'intrusive thoughts' in your search browser, a large folder will develop.

Hope to hear back from you.

Geoff.

[Guest_342]

Hello Horatia,

I hope you are doing well. I don't have those exact thoughts but I certainly have had a whole host of other intrusive thoughts. I would actually describe that experience I had with those thoughts as very noisy and busy - they just keep circling around in there, at many time irrationally (because I'd already heard particular thoughts and dismissed them earlier, only for them to annoying pop up again for me to sort through and work out from scratch again). That was many years ago, and I have since received incredible ongoing support from my GP, but there are still times - eg in times of high stress - where I do feel my thoughts going in that direction again. But I am in a better position nowadays to fairly quickly and rationally dismiss those thoughts. What I now appreciate more these days is that they are just thoughts and nothing more - I have the option to tell them to 'go away!' And they can't hurt me. I appreciate this may seem hard right now when you are in a bit of a 'habit' of having these thoughts.

Perhaps you could make a visit to your GP to tell them what's happening, and they could suggest some options? You needn't be scared to tell them - this is such a common thing people go through and you won't be judged. You're certainly not the only one, even though it might feel very lonely at times (because these things, while common, are unique to each person and many people don't talk about it because they are eg embarrassed. But thing of all the public figure who have spoken out about their mental health in recent years - the conversation about these previously 'taboo' things is always growing and being embraced.

I hope this helps xo