Write out everything, don’t worry about penmanship or legibility, and say whatever horrible thing you have in your head on the page. This creates a safe space for your mind to unload. What’s important here is to promise yourself you’ll rip up what you write. You might find certain phrases useful to repeat, such as, ‘I am not my thoughts and I choose my actions’, or ‘I am a valuable person despite any thought I might have”. Remind yourself that you are not your thoughts, and that everyone has intrusive thoughts now and then. What things can you do instead? Acceptance.
In an effort to control unwanted thoughts you start to practice compulsive behaviours like hand washing or counting.īut there are several other mental health issues that involve intrusive thinking, such as:Īgain, blaming yourself for intrusive thoughts or judging yourself for having them just makes them worse. Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is most commonly connected to intrusive thoughts. What psychological issues are connected to intrusive thoughts? Cognitive behavioural therapy, a short-term psychotherapy, focuses just on helping you gain control of your thinking. What intrusive and negative thoughts have in common is that they are both just thoughts and both can be changed with therapy. If we were raised with negative parents, or were always put down by a caregiver, we might not even realise our thoughts are negative, we are so used to pessimism. It’s only when we decide to tune in that we realise we are constantly putting ourselves down or thinking in black and white, dramatic ways. Negative thoughts, on the other hand, tend to hum along in the background like a radio we don’t realise we left on. And intrusive thoughts tend to be exaggerated - really cruel, agressive, sexual, or even violent.
They can feel like the voice of someone else running through our head, saying things we are not ready to accept we can feel, if we are still in denial of our shadow. Intrusive thoughts are ones we hear loud and clear. Is there a difference? If we are talking psychological definitions, yes. A thought is a thought, Again, we all have terrible, dark thoughts now and then. Am I a bad person for having intrusive thoughts? If your intrusive thinking is affecting your day-to-day life and capacity to cope? It can be a sign of a mental health issue or disorder. You might even start using compulsive behaviour, like counting, tapping, or hand washing, to try to control the thoughts. Guilt hits, our rage subsides, and the thought stops.īut for some of us the thought doesn’t stop, it keeps coming until we feel haunted. We are so furious we imagine someone else dead, visualise our workplace blowing up, or even have a terrible thought about hurting our own child.
We all have a shadow side, and we all actually experience intrusive thoughts now and then. Intrusive thoughts are often outside of your personal values and morals, and can be angry, sexual, agressive, or even violent. But you can’t seem to stop it coming or control it. Worry that you are a terrible person because of the things that run through your head? Do you wish you could control your intrusive thoughts, but feel at a loss? What are intrusive thoughts?Īn intrusive thought is a thought, urge, or visual that flashes into your mind unbidden, and that you find upsetting and unwanted.
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