Hi All, I’m struggling with understanding something. Im scared that if I accept my thoughts and don’t react to them, then that means I’m okay with them. What if I start accepting my intrusive thoughts and then think it’s okay to act on them? Any advice?
Accepting the presence of thoughts doesn’t mean accepting the content. I can have an intrusive thought of driving into a telephone pole on the highway, and I can accept that that thought is in my mind. I don’t try to do anything to remove the thought, and I don’t attach any meaning to the content of the thought. You can accept the presence without accepting the content, but the goal is to accept the presence of the thought without trying to figure it out or make the anxiety you feel from the thought go away. Hope this helps
“Accepting” doesn’t mean the thoughts aren’t FALSE. It means you stop the struggle of trying to “get rid” of the thought, which is one of the hallmarks of OCD. The thought is just a thought, but whatever meaning you attach to it is what causes the anxiety. Take the thought objectively, and then apply the appropriate cognitive distortion label to it. Look up “cognitive distortions” to see what I mean. Trust me when I say you’ll relate lol.
It helped me to think of it as acknowledging my thoughts rather than accepting them. But accepting your thoughts doesn’t mean you’re okay with them. It just means you realize they exist and you accept they’re there. It does not mean you think it’s okay to act on them (the fact you have this concern further shows this).
Does anyone struggle with accusatory thoughts such as "you molested the kids you babysat" and then you wonder if you really did because your brain said you did? Does this make sense?
I’m a little confused on accepting uncertainty. If I answer an intrusive thought with “maybe, maybe not”, am I supposed to truly believe what I’m saying? Truly believe that I could REALLY SERIOUSLY do ____? For example, if i get the intrusive thought “I’m going to act out and hurt someone”, am I supposed to say “maybe I will hurt someone” and then continue with the triggering situation? Because I can’t tell if I’m actually putting someone in danger because the thoughts feel real or if it’s false alarms and I need to push through it. Does anyone have any experience in this? I’d like to make sure I’m understanding this right
Hey all, I was wondering on what it looks like to you to accept your anxiety and let the intrusive thoughts flow? I’ve heard this a lot but to me this prolongs my anxiety. For context I’m struggling with intrusive thoughts of beastiality and wanting to go watch it and it’s giving me high anxiety, I’m trying to accept it but I feel like it’s prolonging the anxiety.
Hi, is it possible to actually stop intrusive thoughts or do I need to shift my tactic to accept I can’t get rid of intrusive thoughts but concentrate on how I react to intrusive thoughts. If so that’s a game changer in my life
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