Intrusive thoughts

There’s a few ways: - acknowledge that the thought is there, accept it and let it pass. Don’t dwell on it, don’t analyze it, don’t ruminate on it. Just say either out loud or in your head “i understand that <insert intrusive thought here> I accept that the thought is here, and I’m choosing to let it pass” then move on to a new thought. - a very uncomfortable, but HIGHLY effective technique used in ERP is to lean INTO the thought instead of away from it. For example, let’s say you have health concern OCD, and you have an intrusive thought that says “maybe I have a brain tumor”, this method of leaning into it would be to tell yourself “ I probably have a brain tumor” over and over and over again. The more we do this, the more our brain and body get accustomed to the thought, and the less it bothers us. The important part is to keep saying the ERP technique until you no longer feel the anxiety about the thought. Sometimes it takes 10 minutes, sometimes 2 hours. This is very hard to do for some people because it forces you to lean INTO the fear instead of hiding from it. - brain dumps - this is when you take a notebook and dump out everything that your stressing about. Go into as much detail as you want, get everything out, scream in all caps, cry onto the paper, ask questions, answer questions, etc. - meditations - there are great OCD meditation videos on this woman’s YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@myocdcoach?feature=shared She also has a full course available for OCD recovery. You can either buy it for lifetime access, or a weekly membership price on her website.

Maybe. But maybe not. I don’t need any more certainty than I already have.