Have you ever been driving and had a random thought like “what if I went into ongoing traffic right now”? Or you were cutting something and you thought ” I can just cut my finger off right now.” Don’t worry you are not insane, these are pretty normal! These are called intrusive thoughts.
Intrusive thoughts are involuntary thoughts or unpleasant ideas/images. They can become obsessive which leads to distress and it can be hard to stop. To someone with a healthy mind, they are able to get this thought and think ” that’s weird!” But then move on with their life.
Someone with anxiety or depression will get these thoughts and become afraid or obsessive about it. This then will cause them to keep ruminating.
Rumination is when you repetitively think of something over and over and the thoughts are usually negative. The reason why you will obsessively think of something is because it is your brain’s way of trying to resolve things or a way to make you feel better. It is also a way to gain some sort of insight or a way to make you feel like you are in some sort of control.
It is similar to fantasizing but with fantasizing you get good positive feelings. With rumination, you are obsessively thinking about something negative and you are getting more and more upset or anxious.
So someone that has anxiety or depression when they have one of these thoughts will think “oh no why did I have that thought?” And then they will start to entertain the thought. You will think things like ” oh no what if it means this will happen?” or ” what if x,y,z?” You start to ruminate and spiral.
The reason you have these thoughts is because of the way you react to them. Your brain will continue to throw these thoughts your way based on your reactions. If you react in an extreme way like you are trying to avoid the thoughts or you’re trying to fight them your brain will then want to resolve it. Our brain does not like cognitive dissonance so it will continue to make them come.
It works the same way with positive thoughts. You can think and feel more positive based on one good thing and you will see the world in a different light. Your brain does that same thing with negative thoughts. When it comes to rumination, it is a way for you to try to predict uncertainty and even read others’ minds. You are trying to predict the future since uncertainty is a big trigger.
Here is the thing, your thoughts become your beliefs. When you have these thoughts and entertain them, you now believe that it is something that is happening or could happen. your brain does not know the difference between imagination and reality. When you are imagining these things you feel it is actually happening. So when you imagine these things like gory things or negative things your body goes into distress. This causes you to think about it more and more as your mind is trying to gain insight or control.
I remember my first intrusive thought, I was driving with my mom and a thought popped up about hurting her. It was terrifying and I was so terrified that I then held my fist tight as I was afraid I would lose control of my body. I thought I was a sociopath and there was no other explanation! But no just because you have those thoughts does not mean you want to do it. it is your body’s way of reacting to what’s going on in your mind.
When you have these thoughts that means it is your deep-seated route fears. It could mean you’re afraid of people hurting or suffering. So if you are someone afraid of hurting others just know you won’t because someone that genuinely wants to I not afraid of those thoughts. It does not stop there, There are also intrusive thoughts about negative self-view and other things that repeat over and over. So how do you stop doing this?
The first thing you want to do is recognize! The minute you start is the minute it is easier to get out of it. When you have spiraled, It is a lot harder to get out of that those thoughts, and when you get to that deep dark place where you feel terrible or you’re in a full-blown panic. It is harder to get out and you’ll need grounding techniques to bring back reality. It is a lot easier to get out of it as soon as you recognize it is happening.
The next thing you want to do is recognize your triggers. You may be triggered to have those thoughts more when you are around certain things, when you see certain things, or hear things. You want to take notes of your triggers. During those times is when you will need to practice coping mechanisms like taking deep breaths, talk to friends, being careful of your language. You want to pay attention to your needs and help yourself through the triggers so you’re less triggered in the future.
A big trigger for people is uncertainty so if there is something out of your control and don’t have clarity, that is when you will really need to help yourself.
With intrusive thoughts, a lot of it is focusing on what you can’t control. So when you are spiraling ask yourself can you control this? If not then focus on what you can control. You can control what you wear, who you interact with, what you do, what you eat etc.
Try to see your thoughts in a different light. For instance, let’s say you fear people are speaking about you when you walk by, shift it to maybe they are saying positive things. Is this information you really know? No, it is not so it is not worth your time.
Also, you want to accept things and the way things are. Accepting that there are things you can’t change and accepting your reality. When you accept things it gives you a sense of calmness. You think ” I am not going to focus on what is not in my control but what is.”
Another way is by challenging those scary thoughts. Sometimes we have logical thoughts and they make sense of why it would happen but sometimes they are fear based rather than it actually happening. You want to challenge yourself and ask things like Do you have any proof of it happening? Just because you’re afraid does not mean it will actually happen.
This is the key thing you need to do when ruminating and having intrusive thoughts. You are stuck in this pattern and your brain recognizes this pattern so you want to disrupt it. Something you can do after you recognize these thoughts is to say random things like “mic drop!’ or whatever random word that comes to mind. This then disrupts the pattern and brings you back to reality. You will be able to focus on what is in front of you.
What mindfulness is, is being present. Focus on your surroundings and what is in front of you. Like ” there are leaves in front of me.” Or whatever is in front of you. What mindfulness does is it helps bring discipline to your mind and it retrains your brain. So rather than you reacting to the thoughts you’re having. You are now teaching your brain to be calm and be present.
It also gives you control of your automatic results. So when you’re having intrusive thoughts, bring back to what is in front of you.
Recognize your thoughts, challenge them in some sort of way, change your perception, and then let them go. These are the key ways to retrain your brain. You can see why and what is happening and these are the things you want to do to stop it and bring yourself back to now. When you do these things you will notice yourself start to have these thoughts less as you are retraining your brain. And you also are bringing discipline to your mind and not strongly reacting to these thoughts.
What do you guys think? Leave it all in the comments below!
