few years back I would get these weird thoughts in my head which is far from the type of person I am but due to my anxiety even though i don't let them bother me they keep coming back .. has anyone delt with this ??
In a nutshell, if you pay attention to these thoughts, you teach your brain that they are important. So, your brain being something that always wants the best for you, it keeps presenting you with these thoughts (because you have effectively told it that they are important!).
There are two ways you can deal with this.
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You can keep trying to ignore them; this means treating them as “background noise” for want of a better phrase. You must not analyse them, attempt to rationalize why you are having them, or in any way “process them”. Just let them come in, rattle around in your head, then bounce out.
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You can intentionally expose yourself to them, then “sit” with any anxiety they cause until they naturally fade on their own.
I suffered with horrible intrusive thoughts that were totally against my character. I paid huge attention to them, believed that they were telling me something about me (ie I was changing as a person because I was getting these thoughts) and otherwise suffered greatly due to them. The breakthrough for me was when my therapist at the time stated that I was going to “have to get used to these thoughts sooner or later”. The meaning to this was that we simply cannot control every thought that comes into our brain, there are too many and our brain is too complex. Most of the thoughts are random, after all.
So, I focused on the horrible thoughts that caused me huge anxiety, intentionally making myself anxious by bringing them into my head instead of running from them. I did this over and over and over, tens of times a day, for a whole week. After that week, I had gotten the anxiety down probably by 75%; the thoughts no longer bothered me because I had exposed myself to them, so they lost their grip on me. This is a process similar to that which anyone wanting to overcome fear of, say, spiders will go through; exposure and response prevention (ERP).
I think in your case you should try #1 first; then you can consider #2, which, whilst it works, is hard work.
that’s is absolutely amazing and would love to keep in touch with you could you PM me mabey your email . I would love to talk to someone with the same exp
i am betting you got wrong diagnosis. have doctor test you for bi-polar, ask about latuda. amazing stuff.
He is exactly right. It’s called OCD Intrusive thoughts. Once you think something that causes you anxiety it can get stuck on auto loop and cause you a lot of distress. There is so much great information out there on this and how to overcome it. I will message you a link that will give you some really good insight on it, and how to work through it.
thank you grounded
well I had 3 diagnosis
and all were oCD and anxiety
Yes I had this bad for 18 years. It sounds typical of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder with obtrusive thoughts. Had different types of counselling including C.B.T. and taken medication including paroxetine. The thoughts are very unpleasant and always go against your belief system and values as a person. They always bother you more if you try and push them out or block/ignore them and seem to be more prevalent during times of anxiety/stress. Try and just let them pass through your mind without any judgement as they do not represent you in any way as a person and are just random thoughts. Everyone gets random thoughts and bad thoughts from time to time but with some people these thoughts will stick with them and pester them as they are people of good morality and don’t want to associate themselves with thinking bad things. Don’t judge yourself on these thoughts as I’m sure you’re as good a person as the next. Paul