Struggling with intrusive thoughts and feeling overwhelmed by their intensity.

how do I stop giving them power?

@xlm17 I am new to all of this and just started erp therapy myself. What has helped me the most is telling myself these are just thoughts and the reason they are causing you so much stress is because they are truly unwanted. What I have taken from therapy thus far is to accept the thought, don’t try to push it away. Accept it for what it is and sit with the uncertainty of the thought.

@Anxiousmindsthinkalike thank you, going to try this

@xlm17 Try to think of it like who cares if these thoughts are in my mind all day, let them come in and try not to analyze why they are there. Let them say whatever they want, let them put images of whatever they want in your head. The human mind is capable of thinking about the most terrible and gruesome thoughts, that doesn’t mean we want to think of them! After the anxiety is released from the thoughts they will lose their power and no longer run your life

@xlm17 I recently just started telling them “yeah I most certainly am going to do that” or “yeah maybe I will maybe I won’t” it neutralizes them almost? And it’s kind of funny if you give them some sass. Like *insert harm Intrusive thought about loved one* “yup that is definitely what I’m going to do. In fact, I’ve already done it”

@Andrea Ball I do the same thing. I try to almost make a joke out of the worst situation imaginable but hey it works!

@Anxiousmindsthinkalike I just started implementing this so I’m still not 100% great at it!! So on bad days it’s super hard for me to find the funniness in it, but humor is the best therapy sometimes

@Andrea Ball On bad days it’s hard to find any type of rationality truthfully. It’s weird because on the better days I am fully able to understand that the thoughts are ridiculous but on bad days I just want to cry because of them.

@Anxiousmindsthinkalike Today I even had a switch like that within like minutes, one minute I was crying about the thoughts then the next I was like “they literally are just intrusive thoughts”

@Anxiousmindsthinkalike you’re absolutely right :)

@Andrea Ball Me too… one minute I was totally freaking out and felt sick to my stomach, the next I was like common girl you know what you’re doing . It’s exhausting but we got this!