What Is an Intrusive Thought?
On any given day, you experience a continuous flow of thoughts swirling inside your mind. Most of these thoughts occur without your permission. They just happen.
Intrusive thoughts are different. Intrusive thoughts rush to the center of your attention…and then stay there. They demand your focus and insist that you obsess over them. Anyone who’s ever experienced repeated intrusive thoughts may feel as though their life has been taken over.
Intrusive thoughts could be:
Relationships:
- Obsessive doubts over whether your relationship will work
- Constant analysis of your own feelings or your partner’s feelings for you
- Obsessively thinking your partner is cheating on you or being unfaithful
- Thinking you may be cheating on someone
- Wondering if you’re good enough
- Constantly wondering if the other person actually likes you (true for sexual and non-sexual relationships)
Violent:
- Obsessively fearing that you will commit a violent act against a loved one or stranger
- Thoughts about killing an innocent person, intentionally or unintentionally
- Seeing a kitchen knife, or other sharp object, and spiraling down a violent scenario
- Jumping in front of a car, train, or bus
Health-related:
- Obsessing over a mole on your body that could be cancerous, or a bump that you never noticed before
- Anxious thoughts and feelings that you have a terminal disease
- Constantly wondering why you’re sick all the time
- Not believing doctors when they give you a diagnosis
How to Stop Intrusive Thoughts
Learn to recognize and become aware when you experience an intrusive thought:
The first step to managing your intrusive thoughts is recognizing when you are having them. One method that I’ve found to be highly effective for helping with this is mindfulness.
Learn to accept them:
Once you’ve gotten good at recognizing intrusive thoughts, how do you make them go away? You don’t. Attempting to ignore or suppress your intrusive thoughts usually makes them worse. What you should be doing is accepting them. You’ve likely tried many times in the past to “get rid” of your intrusive thoughts, but I’d be willing to bet that hasn’t worked so far, has it? As mentioned earlier, intrusive thoughts are normal, and they’re going to happen. The best course of action after recognizing an intrusive thought is to accept it for what it is.
The next time you experience an intrusive thought, give the method above a try and see how it works.
Courtesy: Motivation Grid
