Strange/Disgusting/Unwanted thoughts

Who here has them, and if you do, can you share with me your coping skills that help you get rid of them? My coping skill when these thoughts come into my mind is to tell somebody i'm close to that will understand. Most of mine are unwanted sexual thoughts and gross thoughts.

Hi, sorry to here that. I also have messed up thoughts, but mine involve sharp objects. Almost every time I see one I imagine it stuck in / scraping my eyes or some other body part. I never feel any pain or anything but it makes me clench my face and stuff.

As far as managing them, I don't really know. It's tough because if I think about not thinking it, I'll just think it. And it's usually unexpected. Like I just pick up something or look at something and it happens.

Good luck, sorry I'm not much help, but I can relate. I imagine these thoughts aren't too terribly harmful, just as long as we don't feel the urge to act on them. Since mine would just be painful, I don't have that problem, in fact, that's why they're unwanted to begin with.

I get a bunch of strange, disturbing thoughts as well. They're usually of the violent variety but I also get unwanted sexual thougths and just plain weird ones. In my mind, they are someone elses thoughts that I'm just picking up, although it still doesn't help me feel better about them. Sometimes I'm able to talk to someone I'm close to about them like you do, but most of the time they're too disturbing for me to want to tell anyone. When I get these thoughts, I listen to music really loud to drown them out or read to get my thoughts going in another direction. Best of luck

the best medicine is doing things to keep your mind occupied, working a job is a great way to do that. try and stay out of your head by actively going from one thing to the next, inertia man, get into a flow and the thoughts will come and go sometimes and you get over it without getting stuck. i don't think there's any solution for this unfortunately. it sucks man. but try and occupy that mind, i bet you'll feel better.

Thanks for your comments, guys.

The problem is I can't work. I've tried really hard but I just can't be productive like a normal person. I can't be in crowds (I avoid them besides the times I go to church, but even there I have anxiety attacks) and I can't keep my mind on things I want to (I have OCD so said thoughts won't go away). But, fortunately i've been blessed with SSI so i'm not always without when it comes to money.

I'd say just bring it up to your therapist, and if you don't have a therapist, get one. I'm positive that they would be able to work with you and help you curb these thoughts. I think I have OCD as well, so I can relate to where you're coming from.

If you can't stay busy in the conventional sense, why not try keeping busy by making art or something creative? You can be by yourself and do that and it can be a great distraction / very therapeutic.

I didn't have the discipline to occupy my mind for most of the day, that's why when i found work my repetitive intrusive thoughts became manageable. i don't think abundant free-time is really good for us, i think doing stuff, frankly being forced to keep doing stuff keeps the mind from getting absorbed into these thoughts. there's nothing else to really to say... problems tend to fade away when you occupy your mind with stuff.

it's tough that you can't find a job, but i bet you can do a job from home, right?

Mine are about rape. I have a thread about them in the sz forum but mostly it's me being bonkers in the nut.

Yeah, work helps me control my obsessive thoughts, too. I don't have to time to obsess about how I was raped when I have to whip the team into gear and deal with the broken printer and answer the phone and all those other office-y tasks.

But when I can't work, I knit. I like that it's a combination of creative work and structure, plus at the end there is knitwear, and knitwear is so very reassuring. Nothing beats a gigantic, cozy jumper.

When I have unwanted thoughts, they are not usually sexual, but more likely thoughts I get from other people, thinking vindictive or disgusted thoughts about me. Lately I have only had good people around me , which really makes it so much easier to interact with them.

Yeah my psychologist knows and she says that the thoughts come from the Schizophrenia in me, and i'm in the middle of a change in counselors (my old one knew about the thoughts) so I'm pretty busy with therapy. I also get a counselor/social worker to come to my house 3 times a week so they are really working with me.

It may help you to realize that most of us have these kinds of thoughts (my bolding).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intrusive_thoughts

The full wikipedia article may be helpful to you. The key is not to get caught up with them and not to try to suppress them. "What you resist persists."

The last time I had thoughts of doing harm because I was overwhelmed/agitated/irritable/hallucinating/delusional I had enough insight to voluntarily go inpatient and they kept me for 6 days with the psychiatrist admonishing me daily that I could go to jail if I acted upon those thoughts. With a med adjustment, thankfully those thoughts subsided. Now 8 years later and on a lower dose, I find myself back with those same thoughts. I see my therapist Tuesday.

I would bounce off your therapist/pdoc your thoughts to get their feedback for the best course of treatment. Sometimes just therapy can go a long way.

What medicine did you take that helped your thoughts?

I have only been on one antipsychotic (twice) and each time it's been Geodon.

What dose works for you? I take 180 mg of Geodon and it's only helping a little.

The first time I had gotten up to 160 mg but akathisia was so bad I took myself off of it to only find myself back on it a year and a half later. Looking back in my journal for the second time on Geodon I started out with 120 mg but I can't follow why my dosage was decreased down to 70 mg's. Today I'm up at 90 mg and am suppose to go up to 100 but I'm having a hard time going up the last 10 mg. I fight between despising my meds and knowing that they keep me from going off the deep end as I'm all too familiar with.

If you are only experiencing little relief from Geodon then perhaps it's time to revisit trying a different med or to say the very least add another. Have you tried other meds?

I was on Risperidone, then Invega, and they both helped for a while, but that was only when I was diagnosed with Asperger's and OCD. They just recently took away the diagnosis of Asperger's and replaced it with Schizoaffective. Risperidone and Invega weren't the answer. I'm not experiencing any side effects with the Geodon I am taking so I don't think i'm taking too high of a dose, and neither does my psychiatrist so we are just going to stick with the Geodon I assume, and maybe raise it.

Geodon's maximum dosage is 160 mg. I remember when I was admitted, the psychiatrist there said that I was already at 140 mg so what did I want to do as I could only go up 20 mg before I maxed out. I said lets rock but the last 20 mg increase the akathesia was rough. I was on 160 for a short period time before they lowered my dose to 140 mg. The only other side effecte I get sometimes is slight slurring speeech here and there. It's rare, but can happen. I't can be really annoying.

My psychiatrist told me that the average dose is 160mg and that I'll need to go higher. I currently take 180mg but I'd bet she's going to raise it again.

Or she could add another. Just saying. There are options, just which ones are you willing to try. Talk to your pdoc about your symptoms and what else can be done to help you.

When do you see your pdoc?

I hear yah. The images can just keep replaying over and over and they are very hard to ignore.

I actually have a technique that I use and it works about 50% of the time... for me. It not only works for the awful thoughts and images, it works really well if you face unpleasant hallucinations.

Own it. It sounds stupid, I know... but here me out. Because these unwanted thoughts and or hallucinations are obviously a product of our own minds, they can be manipulated. It is hard to do at first, but hopefully you'll fall into your own groove.

The thoughts will still be disturbing, but instead of allowing yourself to fall prey to the normal reactions of discomfort and the negative aspects that come with the territory, bite the bullet and grab the reigns.

I like to look at what is being presented to me in a different light. A horrible image that still plagues me at times is the slicing open of the human body, usually a random person in the room. As if that doesn't suck enough, once I'm thinking about the open body cavity the insides are not human one bit, with web-like spongey tissue. It used to be debilitating.

But now, if that crap starts to fill my head again, I try to mentally befriend the situation. Once you have a more positive outlook and some composer it's easier to take, especially because now you are in control.

Now when that crap fills my head, instead of the person being split open and in agony, they smile and warmly invite me over to show me what all these strange innards are. You have control, so now the person can be teaching you more like it's a science class, rather than mutilation.

The more you practice, the more these horrific thoughts have less of an impact on you.

.... Unfortunately everyone is different, and even though this is a good solution for me, it may not be for you. But I always say, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

I wish you luck and relief from those unwanted thoughts.

The 21st. I tried to get in today but she just got back from vacation so she is swamped.

Keep us posted how everything goes.

from what I've been told intrusive thoughts will never go away. I'll always have them, so I have to get used to them. if you can ever get used to violent thoughts about the person sitting across from you. I can still function, and I can pass through the thoughts and not let them them deter me too much from what I'm doing. Although they certainly snap my attention away from the present. I think you got to pass through them.

Maybe it's always been apart of the human condition. I don't know if that's comforting or not, or that most people experience these. I know I can do things to reduce there frequency, but I can't eliminate them completely. I want to understand how I can reduce how much the bother me to the least amount. I sort of occupy my mind to escape them. Is that all I can do? Cope. That's what the psychiatrist told me, cope.

i bleive they can go away.. just try not thinking them. sometimes you have to "sift through" what people (psychiatrists inlcuded) say. see ya