[Switch]

Note: If this belongs in another forum section please tell me or feel free to move it to there.

I need some help getting rid of intrusive thoughts. So far my methods have been to just repress them, distract on youtube, or use substances. I recognize that I can't do that all day (as I have been) and need to find better ways of dealing with this.

My intrusive thoughts are mostly replaying very small, second long moments in my past like something I said to someone 6 years ago, or how I responded to a joke a few months back. Things that are seemingly picked from my brain at random and then obsessively replayed in a way that makes me feel like this is the end of the world. Usually, I can deal with this, but now it's started happening to moments my D&D characters have experienced! And thats where this starts bugging me a lot, because I don't want to feel bad to the point of self harm about saying the wrong thing as a fictional character in a fictional game played with close friends who don't judge me. This is ridiculous and needs to stop here.

So, if anyone has any good coping methods they would like to share I could really use them right now!

Edit: Please don't tell me to talk to my pdoc or T. For reasons I am willing to get into, these are not available to me. I am on my own right now. Well, me and my very tired SO.

[Junerain]

You may need to replace these negative thoughts with positive ones...check out this very helpful thread:

http://forums.psychcentral.com/psych...bout-them.html

[Skeezyks]

Hello Switch: The Skeezyks struggles with a lot of intrusive thoughts. I have found that trying to block them, stuff them down, or distract myself from them simply does not help. I employ a Buddhist practice which is referred to as "compassionate abiding". Here is a link to a nice description of the practice, should you be interested:

https://mindsetdoc.wordpress.com/201...e-abiding-101/

[avlady]

i try listening to meditative music, like sea waves and forest sounds.

[*Laurie*]

Originally Posted by Skeezyks

Hello Switch: The Skeezyks struggles with a lot of intrusive thoughts. I have found that trying to block them, stuff them down, or distract myself from them simply does not help. I employ a Buddhist practice which is referred to as "compassionate abiding". Here is a link to a nice description of the practice, should you be interested:

https://mindsetdoc.wordpress.com/201...e-abiding-101/

Thank you so much for this wonderful link, Skeezyks. I call the technique 'simply noticing', but I really like the term 'compassionate abiding'. I've been practicing this technique for several decades (learned it from an exceptional psychologist/therapist who studied Buddhism), and it's great to read a refresher.

[IchbinkeinTeufel]

This sounds like OCD (I am not a doctor; this is just what I've learned based on my personal experiences and from speaking to others) in the form of, as you say, intrusive thoughts; it's somewhat of a subcategory of OCD: obsessive compulsive disorder. Have you ever been diagnosed as someone with OCD? Have you taken an OCD test here on Psych Central?

I'd suggest looking the forum OCD & Trichotillomania.

I have OCD. Intrusive thoughts have plagued my life since I was a young teen, and I'm now 30 years of age. I have CBT for my OCD and went to an OCD support group a few times. Although these things helped, it didn't cure me. It's not the same for everone, sadly. Some can be cured, but some get the tools needed to cope better. I was the latter.

If we are talking OCD, and what I've learned about intrusive thoughts as per my case (just in-case coping methods differ from case-to-case) is appropriate here, then I would suggest the following:

That you continue to use distraction techniques. Consider working on your anxiety levels too, because high anxiety can antagonise the brain, causing more of these intrusive thoughts to pop up. Perhaps talk here about ways to lower and/or cope with your anxiety (if you do struggle with it) maybe in the Anxiety, Panic and Phobias forum. My OCD is always worse when I'm anxious.

I would also suggest that you absolutely do not try to fight the thoughts, but allow them their place, accept that they are there, that they are nonsense thoughts that many if not all of us get, then move on. Of course this is easier said than done, which is why it takes time and a lotta work. It will be difficult at first, if, like I was, you're used to fighting the thoughts. I tell them to sod off, that they are nonsense, I laugh at them, or I simply distract myself using my senses, such as smell and sight.

Maybe think of intrusive thoughts as an attention-seeking child: were you to ignore the child, he or she would get bored and give up, figuring that you won't pay attention to them. That's how I see it, at least. The more attention you give to the child, the more the child will persist.

Hope this helps you as it did me.

[Anxietygirl74]

In addition to the meds I'm on a book called Brain Lock really helped me. I used to get just horrible, recurring thoughts in my head and this book talked about how to stop them and replace them. It's the best book I have read about it and I've read a lot (i'm a research girl).