- Date posted
- 6y ago
- Date posted
- 6y ago
Try likening the thoughts to cars on a highway. There are ton of cars (thoughts) speeding about; instead of tracking a car (thought) like a hawk and watching its entire journey, let the thoughts pass. That is, let the cars drive on out of view. They may circle back around, but that’s okay. You’re a great distance from the highway, and can see them for what they are: fleeting chemical reactions that come and go. They don’t define you.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
It’s quite a pain! But the harder we try to “stop thinking,” the more we think. In my experience so far, I’ve seen that managing and coping with OCD is mostly about reframing my relationship to thoughts and feelings, not stopping the experience of them. They are only that. They are not our identities.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
It’s very hard not to ruminate. I think the fact that you ruminate about these thoughts tells you who you are because you know that those thoughts are not a part of you. They happen to all of us I think of things that I don’t want to all the time but I know that how much I don’t want those thoughts tells me who I am. They happen for reasons we don’t understand yet. And we can’t push them away because that makes them more prominent so just except that they are there but as Doug said they are not our identities.
- Date posted
- 6y ago
@v are you seeing a therapist or on medication? I was in your situation a few months ago. Life was miserable. But once I started going to therapy regularly and taking medication I started to feel better. Keep fighting!
- Date posted
- 6y ago
it’s just so hard not to ruminate
- Date posted
- 6y ago
I like what @Doug said.That is good advice for everyone
Related posts
- Date posted
- 21w ago
I’m having a very bad evening with my intrusive thoughts. I was doing really good dealing with them but tonight one hit me hard. I’ve been having a lot of different intrusive thoughts but I’ll have one occasionally about hurting my mom or my dog who I love and they’re the only family I have in my life. They’re my world. I was helping my mom put away the dishes and I had the big kitchen knife in my hand and my intrusive thought was you could stab your mom. And then my brain said I had a twitch in my hand and that meant I wanted to do it. Let me just say that I wouldn’t hurt a fly. I actually caught a fly in a glass and put it outside instead of killing it this evening before this intrusive thought happened. I’m such a gentle and compassionate and caring person and these thoughts instantly cause me to have a panic attack. And I have no one to talk to them about. I know they’re hard for my mom to hear and I don’t want to be any more of a burden than I already am. I do desperately want to tell her and have her reassure me that I’m not crazy or a psycho. Then my thoughts wander to if your hand did flinch could you be a psychopath. Is hurting someone in you. I know it’s not but I feel like my mind is out to get me and hurt me. I’m working so hard and I thought I was doing so good but I need to know why I have these thoughts. They’re not ok. I need someone to help me make sense of why. I know we aren’t supposed to ruminate but I shouldn’t have thoughts like this about people I love and care about the most in the world.
- Date posted
- 15w ago
I struggle so bad with intrusive thoughts. They can be so bad that I'll cry because I KNOW that's not how I feel or want to do. (Too embarrassed to say what they're about) I'll constantly try to figure out why I have them, and constantly figure out what they mean, causing me to constantly circle around and around. I had to get on anxeity meds, which helped a little but the thoughts still happen. How do you help yourself with this? How do you know that you're just not some physcopath? 😅
- Date posted
- 12w ago
This is hard to admit, but I’ve been struggling with intrusive thoughts where the central theme is racism. I don’t use racial slurs but my brain worries that I have said something that hurts or offends someone and now I find myself analyzing every social interaction.
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