[Aunt Donna]

I hate it when intrusive thoughts come in out of nowhere. I am working on not giving in to them. My husband says I act like a restless cougar. He is being supportive. I just hate having to control my thinking 24/7. Just had to get that out of my system.

[perpetuallysad]

What techniques do you use? The only things I find effective are by absolutely distracting myself; like reading or getting on the internet. If I have one idle brain second, they come pouring in.

Have you ever found exposure to be helpful? As in, taking a chunk of time in your day to just meditate, allowing ANY thoughts to come into your head and do NOTHING to stop them? I found this exposure to be a crucial part of my recovery, because it is not WHAT our thoughts are, but HOW we react to them. By exposing myself to these intrusive thoughts, over time I became less and less anxious when they came into my head, until eventually no intrusive thoughts bothered me.

I wish you the best of luck in dealing with this issue. I can sympathize with how distressing these thoughts are...I needed 3 hospitalizations and tons of therapy in order to overcome them...it is extremely difficult to go through!

[Aunt Donna]

I do allow some time for exposure but I have to be real careful and not let it take over. I have found reading or doing something else to help. Today when it started, I could feel a panic attack coming on so I started my husband's supper earlier than I usually do. (I hate cooking). It is just if I allow them, the intrusive thoughts will get the best of me. I, also, have to contend with ADD. I am not giving up. I just hate the thoughts. I can control them at work by staying busy. The people I work with have learned I have to be doing something. I am the office manager and if I am not busy, I will find some mundane task that needs to be done and do it. I am not better than anyone else at work. I have found the new employees don't mind doing the boring tasks if I am willing to do it, too.

[Maven]

I started a thread a few days ago on the new OCD shows Obsessed and The OCD Project. I had very few responses, but I wondered if people watched, and if you didn't, is it because you're afraid of the shows triggering you? I'm not too fearful of that, but I wanted to see if they exploited the OCD for entertainment. Clearly, there was that part of it, but I think it's helpful to see others going through what you're going through.

[Aunt Donna]

Originally Posted by Maven

I started a thread a few days ago on the new OCD shows Obsessed and The OCD Project. I had very few responses, but I wondered if people watched, and if you didn't, is it because you're afraid of the shows triggering you? I'm not too fearful of that, but I wanted to see if they exploited the OCD for entertainment. Clearly, there was that part of it, but I think it's helpful to see others going through what you're going through.

Too many triggers are on tv for me. I avoid the tv as much as possible. I would have been interested in those shows though. I didn't know about them.

[Maven]

Obsessed just started it's second season a couple of weeks ago, and The OCD Project is nearly over, I think, with the next episode being about the patients two months later

[Perna]

Faylowell, I would take a slightly different approach and let some of the thoughts through, kind of because of Newton's Laws?



For every action, there's an equal and opposite reaction. That means if you just push against and try to "control" the thoughts they'll push back and resist control. It's fighting "yourself".

When I use to put myself down, I'd yell "support" inside my head and two guys in togas would come running in from about my right ear to the center of my head and set up a Corinthian column to hold up the dome of my (empty ) head. It always made me smile and feel better about myself. Use some of your thoughts to amuse yourself with! Imagine doing what they say as if you're someone else and see how "silly" some of them are and get a good laugh. They are just thoughts and being creative and taking them to their extremes in thought to give you something to grin about is a good thing! Imagine the tug-of-war you have going with some of them and a "friend" coming up and cutting the rubber band inbetween you and them but only you know it's going to happen so they're surprised and fall all backwards on themselves in a heap

We can't control what we think (or feel), only what we do. Shrug sometimes at some of the thoughts and say to them, "big deal" so I thought you, now begone!

[Aunt Donna]

Thanks, Perna, for the advice. I tried it today when the thoughts came and it helped. I appreciate all the advice I can get.