How to get intrusive thoughts out of your head. Obsessional neurosis. Obsessive states: movements, thoughts, fears, memories, ideas. D. Schwartz, Four Steps Program

We often hear the words “all diseases are from the nerves” and nod our heads in agreement. "I'm all on my nerves!" - says the man, not attaching any importance to these words. But this state often transforms into unpleasant, complex and stable reactions of the psyche: obsessive thoughts and fears, anxiety and anxiety, annoying fears, painful expectation of something bad.

Often we show only superficial interest in these symptoms, blaming everything on fatigue. Measures to combat this very "on the nerves" come down to "Soothing Collection No. 333" from the pharmacy and "Relaxing Bath Foam" from the cosmetics store. And in vain, because it is "from the nerves" that you can get a fair amount of even worse ailments and phobias.

How to get rid of intrusive thoughts in my head and return good mood? In the fight against negativity, one should turn to practical psychology.

Syndromes, their manifestations and consequences

The concept of "syndrome" in psychology means a set of symptoms that most often manifest themselves in the body together, not separately.

For example, the “chronic fatigue syndrome”, which, unfortunately, has become well known to many, often refers to itself as a combination of the following symptoms:

Bad mood, especially in the morning and evening;

Irritability;

Night sleep disorder;

Daytime sleepiness;

Fast fatiguability.

How to recognize an obsession

One of the syndromes that make a person's life not just uncomfortable, but sometimes unbearable, is obsession. Often a person complains:

"I'm haunted by the thought of..."

"I can't stop thinking about..."

- “I got it into my head that…”

"I can't get rid of the feeling..."

It is extremely difficult to remove such thoughts before going to bed and during the day on your own. Intrusive thoughts can take the form of ideas and specific images when a person fixates on another person due to strong feelings. Obsessive thoughts are usually negative character. Against their background, a person experiences the so-called distress- severe negative stress, which the body cannot cope with.

Distress seriously affects the immune system, as the production of immune cells is reduced. An organism weakened by a state of distress is susceptible to infections.

Obsessive thoughts are not always, but often followed by obsessive behavior. All this is an obsession - constant or frequent obsessive thoughts, ideas, fears. How to get rid of obsessive thoughts about a person, about work, about life in general? Read below recommendations from Easy Useful.

Getting rid of obsession

So, life was no fun. Do not fall asleep in the evening: bad, disturbing forebodings, obsessive thoughts about the bad. In the morning - a state of "brokenness" and frequent sticky fears.

During the day - the inability to concentrate on work, the expectation of trouble at any moment. In the evening before going to bed - a premonition of excruciating insomnia. Dark thoughts swirl in the head, bringing a person to complete nervous and even physical exhaustion.

You should not despair. Before you get rid of negative thoughts, you should recognize the very fact of the presence of an obsession. This will be the first step towards getting rid of it, although the struggle is long.

1. First you need to separate yourself from your obsessions, realize: “It's not me who scrolls bad, painful thoughts in my head. That's what my obsession does." By accepting your condition, you will stop beating yourself up for bad thoughts.

2. The next step is to downplay the bad thoughts. To do this, it is important to understand: the state of fear and fear has nothing to do with reality. Tension and anxiety are the result of the biochemical processes of the brain, the product of thinking, and not the events of the surrounding reality.

3. Since the person is obsessed, refocusing is necessary. It is important to find something good, positive, something that you love and learn to focus on it. This stage is comparable to the development of new good habits and will require patience and will.

Step-by-step fight against obsessions

It is important to observe the daily routine: it helps to switch attention to reality. To do this, we try to create rituals, for example, the ritual of falling asleep.

Walk

For example, do you like to walk fresh air. You should determine the time at which you will take an evening walk. Give yourself the setting: “At eight o’clock sharp in the evening, I go out for a walk before going to bed.”

By her own exercise stress will give additional fatigue, help saturate the body with oxygen. Walk “attentively”, concentrate on your movements, for example, count your steps.

Pay attention to details: what is the weather like today? Does the wind blow? What is the path in the park covered with? What color are the leaves, the clouds? Try to remember your favorite poems and songs about nature. Focusing on the positive aspects of reality will speed up the departure of annoying thoughts.

Water procedures

If you love water, then the second ritual can be a shower or bath before bed. Water is important for people not only for body hygiene: its properties can be used for relaxation. It is important that the water temperature is comfortable, neither too hot nor too cold.

Immersion in a warm bath will remind the subconscious of the absolute state of the baby in the womb, in the amniotic fluid. This is a state of peace and security: no need to fight for life and its quality, no worries about the future.

You can add essential oils with a calming effect to the bath, but remember that the doses essential oils are calculated in drops, their action is strong enough.

Chamomile, lavender, lemon balm, sage, bergamot, jasmine, cedar, basil, geranium, patchouli, frankincense and valerian oils effectively soothe the nervous system. As well as oils of lemon, tangerine or grapefruit, but it is important to make sure that you are not allergic to these citrus fruits.

Standing under the shower, direct the jet from top to bottom, on the head. Imagine how it washes away negativity and fatigue. Say to yourself, "I'm washing away all the bad so I can take in the good." After a bath or shower, it is good to drink herbal tea or herbal tea before bedtime if you like it. Let it be fragrant, not strong and not hot.

Savor every sip! After that, you can go to bed. It is important to follow the regimen and go to bed at the same time every day so that the brain tunes in advance for sleep.

Sleep position

When you go to sleep, take a comfortable position on the bed. Concentrate, feel how the muscles relax, how pleasant it is for the body to feel the warmth or coolness of a fresh bed.

You need to sleep in a ventilated room. At this moment, you should be absolutely comfortable: not hot, not cold, comfortable.

Make sure that the position in which you fall asleep does not cause a violation of the blood supply to certain parts of the body, so that it does not numb, for example, the arm or neck.

Thoughts before sleep

It's time to get rid of the habit of watching TV before bed or reading the news on your tablet or smartphone. Put your gadgets away an hour before bed.

In bed, relaxing and closing your eyes, remember a moment in your life when you felt very good. It is desirable that it be a calm, peaceful state. You may remember lying on a sunny beach listening to the sound of the surf or sitting at dawn with a fishing rod by the river in the silence of the forest.

It is important to remember this moment in as much detail as possible: what season it was, what kind of area it was, what kind of forest it was, what trees and shrubs grew there, what kind of herbs near the river filled the air with aromas. Remember the birds singing, the splashing of water.

Immerse yourself completely in the state of those blissful minutes. And little by little, a miracle begins to happen.

When you doze off, but have not yet had time to fall into deep sleep, your brain works in the so-called alpha rhythm, which gives a state of deep conscious relaxation, similar to a trance. The trance state is rehabilitating for the brain:

Do not rush to jump out of bed - lie down for a couple of minutes, feel how comfortable your bed is, what gentle warmth it gives to the body. It is important to nourish yourself with these pleasant sensations. Again give yourself the installation that the coming day will be just as pleasant, comfortable.

So, now you know how you can get rid of obsessive thoughts, anxieties and fears. It's not easy, but it's possible. Follow our advice, study yourself, work on yourself, and most importantly - love yourself.

Learn to live in harmony with yourself, study and use all the ways for this, enrich yourself with new knowledge and skills. And be happy!

Exceptionally reason and the ability to think distinguishes a person from other living beings. The brain has made our individual more conscious than the rest of the inhabitants of the planet. The main goal of consciousness is to create the most rational methods of responding to the world. We can be aware of one part of our thoughts because we purposefully think about something. The other we do not control, and it remains in our subconscious. We do not always notice this part of the work of our brain, while it creates new, much more effective behaviors.

As side effect our brain, as a result of the “creative” process, can generate truly strange thoughts that can surprise or even alarm. I want to move away from such ideas as quickly and efficiently as possible. Let's look at how to get rid of obsessive thoughts and achieve clarity of mind.

It is not always possible to cope with this task on your own. However, there are a number of exercises, among which you can choose one or more that are optimal for yourself.

Firstly You can try to express your emotions. If disturbing thoughts have taken possession of your mind, it is enough to list them. It is this method that the gestalt therapist Nifont Dolgopolov advises. In the event that you are haunted by thoughts like “I don’t have time to do something ...” or “I worry about something ...”, you need to remember the circumstances in which you had these feelings. Perhaps, taking on some business, you suspected that you would not have time to finish it on time. You need to try to express your emotions very clearly. It will not be superfluous to strengthen them with body movements, shades of intonation and gestures. This procedure is best done where you will not be disturbed. Nifont Dolgopolov states that restraining emotions causes thoughts to constantly revolve around this problem. After a person has the opportunity to express his emotions, the endless cycle of thoughts stops.

Based on the second method which helps to get rid of intrusive thoughts, is correct breathing. In order for disturbing ideas to leave your head, you need to close your eyes and start breathing measuredly and calmly. While doing this procedure, listen to your body, follow its movements, control your breathing, watch how your stomach rises and falls. Wellness expert Lelya Savosina, telling how to get rid of intrusive thoughts through breathing, says that during this exercise it is better to concentrate on bodily sensations. The procedure helps to focus on something detached and relieves tension in the muscles.

Another way to get rid of obsessive thoughts is the following technique. You need to take a piece of paper and start writing on it whatever comes to your mind. No need to choose words and focus on spelling. You will be able to watch how your stroke turns from choppy and sharp to smooth. This will mean that you are gradually reaching inner balance. Psychotherapist Alexander Orlov claims that this exercise allows you to look at experiences from a different angle and gives vent to emotions. The same practice is used in the method of free association and the method of directed imagination. The basis of psychotherapy is free and trusting communication, during which everything that disturbs and excites is said.

Maintaining mindfulness is another way to ensure getting rid of intrusive thoughts. If a person is immersed in inner experiences, he begins to perceive worse what is happening around. This mechanism also works vice versa. Existential psychotherapist Maria Soloveichik advises to focus on the objects and events around you, immediately after you notice that you have fallen into the trap of obsessive thoughts. You can turn your eyes to the most insignificant little things like a leaf on a tree. If you do not focus on such details, you will again return to the sphere of thinking. Once you have noticed this reaction in yourself, take up careful observation again. Try to expand the field of your perception. For example, after the leaf, start looking at the crown of the tree, switching to small details from time to time. Change your focus periodically. Let not only trees, but also people, houses, clouds and other objects fall into your field of vision. This technique can make your life much easier, as it will be much easier to deal with obsessive thoughts.

Many who are fond of psychology know that a person is constantly in one of three states of his inner "I": Parent, Child or Adult. Everyone tends to make decisions like an adult, to help and care like a parent, and to obey and act up like a child.

Doctor of Psychology Vadim Petrovsky states that, the constant scrolling of obsessive thoughts represents an endless communication with one of the "I". To effectively nullify the notorious internal dialogue, you should learn to understand who is in this moment speaks from these three "I". In the case when your thoughts are focused on the scenario of failure, most likely your inner voice in the form of a parent is talking to you. Transactional analyst Isabelle Crespel argues that in such a situation, you need to get the critic to start speaking in the tone of a mentor who tells you how to do the right thing and how to make the right decision. At the same time, you need to mentally support yourself with motivating phrases like "Be sure that everything will work out", "You can do everything." Such an internal attitude will help to concentrate on constructive solutions.

Answering the question of how to distract from obsessive thoughts, it is worth mentioning another method, which is to ask yourself questions. In most cases, we are not worried about real difficulties, but only about perceived problems. The author of the “Work” methodology, psychologist Kathy Byron, advises, if it is impossible to change reality, try to change thoughts about it. She suggests asking yourself four questions: “How true is this?”, “Am I 100% sure that this is true?”, “How do I react to these thoughts?” and “Who would I be without these thoughts?”

Let's say you have no idea how to do the right thing because you think that someone will be upset or angry. By working with the above methodology, you will come to the conclusion that no one will be angry with you and that you have thought it up yourself. In another case, you may realize that thinking about someone's dissatisfaction is just an excuse for laziness and inaction. Such a technique will help to understand the relativity of many of our beliefs, change the angle of perception and discover completely unusual solutions to certain problems.

Since it is not always possible to remove obsessive thoughts, you can practice meditation as a way to get rid of unnecessary worries. Yoga coach Natalya Shuvalova is sure that a person concentrates on good and bad thoughts. Meditation, on the other hand, helps us focus solely on what benefits us. You can focus on your breath, a particular symbol, or even a sound. To begin with, it will be enough to learn to observe detachedly your feelings and mental experiences. Having previously taken a comfortable position, begin to follow all the processes that occur in your brain and body. Let your emotions, thoughts and sensations flow by. You should not judge them, you just need to try to study them. Natalia Shuvalova says that it is very important to understand that we are able to control thoughts and emotions, and not vice versa. Observation turns off thoughts and frees the head from obsessions.

Another method that helps to overcome unnecessary ideas is the method of muting the sound. Alexey Sitnikov, a business consultant and Doctor of Psychology, says that we present the most important events and memories for us as vividly and picturesquely as possible. If we imagine the stream of thoughts as a movie, then what better quality image and sound, the stronger the impact on us of a particular plot. Therefore, the most obsessive ideas and thoughts should be “viewed” with muffled sound and a fuzzy image in order to significantly reduce the level of its impact. This will greatly reduce their importance.

If exercises aimed at solving the question of whether how to get rid of intrusive thoughts, do not help, it is likely that the latter have become so intense that the above methods do not give proper calm. Psychoanalyst Ksenia Korbut believes that it is correct to consider obsessive thoughts as a protective mechanism of the human psyche, helping to overcome frightening and unpredictable feelings. They often occur in people who do not know how or are not able to show emotions. It is in such situations that a person tries to explain logically certain experiences or reduce them to something rational and understandable. In view of the fact that it is impossible to do this, we are forced to repeat them over and over again to no avail.

In the event that you cannot distract yourself from obsessive thoughts, it makes sense to contact a specialist who will create the conditions for understanding the world of your own emotions.

In detail about obsessive thoughts: what is it, treatment

Syndrome of obsessive states and thoughts - OCD. What is this mental mechanism, and how to get rid of obsessive thoughts and fears?

Greetings friends!

For me, this article is very important because I am familiar with this problem from my own experience.

And if you are reading it, you may have encountered something like this yourself, and do not know how to deal with it.

It will be not only about the knowledge of psychology, but even more importantly, about your own experience, feelings and important subtleties, which, in order to know, you need to go through it yourself.

I want you to apply and test what will be discussed in this article on your own practical experience, and not on someone else's words that you heard or read somewhere. After all, nothing and no one can replace your own experience and awareness.

Somewhere I will repeat myself in the course of the article, but only because these are very important points that I want to draw your special attention to.

So, intrusive thoughts, what is it?

In psychology, there is such a thing as "mental chewing gum." This name alone should tell you something - a sticky, viscous, addictive thought.

Obsessive thoughts, obsessive states or obsessive internal dialogue - scientifically OCD (), otherwise called obsessive-compulsive disorder.

This is a mental phenomenon in which a person has a painful feeling of forced appearance in the head of some repeatedly repeated information (some thoughts), which often leads to obsessive actions and behavior.

Sometimes a person, exhausted by obsession, himself invents some behavior for yourself action-ritual, for example, counting some numbers, numbers of passing cars, counting windows or pronouncing certain "stop words (phrases)" to yourself, etc. etc., there are many options.

He invents this behavior (action) as a way of some protection from his obsessive thoughts, but in the end these "action-rituals" themselves become obsessions, and the situation only gets worse over time, because these actions themselves constantly remind a person of his problem, reinforce and amplify it. Although this can sometimes help in moments, it is all one-time, short-term and does not get rid of OCD.

Mechanism of occurrence of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

No matter how strange it may seem to someone, but the main reason for the emergence and development of obsessive states, in whatever form it manifests itself, are: firstly, the formed the habit of constantly having an internal dialogue with oneself, moreover, in an automatic (unconscious) way on any exciting old or new occasion;secondly, it attachment to some of their beliefs (ideas, attitudes) and deep faith in those beliefs.

And such obsessive thinking, more or less lesser degree, is present in many people, but many do not even know about it, they just think that this is correct, that this is a normal way of thinking.

Having become habitual, an obsessive internal dialogue manifests itself not only in what is important for a person, but also in any everyday, daily and new situations. Just watch yourself carefully and you will quickly understand.

But more often this is manifested in what a person is obsessed with, what worries him greatly and for a long time.

From the constant scrolling of a monotonous, restless (often frightening) and essentially useless internal dialogue, such fatigue can pile up that, apart from the desire to get rid of these thoughts, there is no other desire. Gradually, this leads to fear of one's own thoughts, before their appearance, which only aggravates the situation.

A person loses freedom and becomes a hostage of an obsessive state. There is insomnia, VVD symptoms () and almost constant, increased anxiety.

Actually, the general internal anxiety and dissatisfaction for some reason led to the possibility of this problem, but this is the topic of other articles.

Obsessive ideas (thoughts) in their essence.

What are obsessive thoughts in general in their inner essence?

It is very important to understand that obsessive thoughts are those thoughts that, without our will, make us think about something. As a rule, these are straining, monotonous (monotonous) internal scrolling dialogs the same mental plot, just in different ways. And this unconscious stream of thoughts in the head can so absorb attention that at that moment everything else that is happening around almost ceases to exist.

An obsessive state, as a function of the brain, oddly enough, has its own natural task, it plays a certain role and is something like a "reminder", "signal" and "enforcer" that push a person to something.

Many of you may now be thinking, and here is some kind of “reminder” and “signal”, because obsessive thoughts are still just thoughts.

Actually, it's not just thoughts. And the main difference between obsessive thoughts and ordinary, logical ones is that these thoughts, despite all their often seeming reasonableness, do not contain anything healthy in their internal filling.

These irrational, emotional thoughts, as a rule, are always connected with our fears, doubts, resentments, anger, or with something important and disturbing us. These thoughts are always based on an emotional charge, that is, their basis is emotion.

And what can be useful in this obsessive mechanism?

The Imposing Signal is called a signal that informs us about something. This mechanism is mainly designed to automatically remind and focus our attention on what we consider important to ourselves.

For example, if you have a loan from a bank, you need to pay it off, but you don’t have money right now, and if you are a sane person, you will look for a solution. And in many ways you will be helped by obsessive thoughts, which, whether you want it or not, will often or constantly, at any time of the day or night, remind you of the situation that has arisen so that you resolve it.

Another example of the usefulness of this intrusive feature.

What is so vitally important that a person can think about that can bring him to an obsessive state?

About money, oh better job, better housing, personal relationships, etc. For example, a person has a goal, and he begins to constantly think about it, makes plans, not looking up, does something and continues to think about it.

As a result, if it is non-stop, it goes on for a long time, there may come a moment when, having decided to take a break, he tries to switch and occupy himself with something else, but notices that he still continues unconsciously reflect on your important goal.

And even if he tries to tell himself with willpower and sound reasoning “stop, I need to stop thinking about this, I need to rest,” it won’t work right away.

Obsessive thoughts, in this example, make a person think about the important. That is, they perform a completely useful role, not allowing a person to stop there, but at the same time, they do not care about his health at all, because this is not their business, their only role is to signal, remind and push.

The very occurrence of an obsessive state - dangerous and harmful for us - is a sign that failures in the psyche have begun.

Just keep in mind: whatever important you are doing, if you do not give yourself good rest, this can lead to any disorders, chronic fatigue, increased anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorders and neurosis.

There is only one conclusion - no matter how valuable and useful what you are doing, and what important you think about, you must always take breaks, stop and allow yourself to have a good rest emotionally, physically and especially mentally, otherwise everything can end badly.

Imposing thoughts on an alarming (frightening) occasion

Obsessive thoughts can be associated with something natural and completely justified, or with something completely absurd, frightening and illogical.

For example, thoughts related to health, when a person, having felt some kind of painful symptom, begins to worry, think about it, and the further, the more he frightens himself. My heart stabbed or pounded hard, immediately thought: "Something is wrong with me, maybe my heart is sick." A person gets hung up on this symptom, worries, and obsessive thoughts arise about this, although in reality there is no disease. It was just a symptom caused by some disturbing thoughts, fatigue and internal tension.

But you can’t just take them and immediately ignore them. Perhaps it really makes sense to listen to these thoughts, because you really can have some kind of physical illness. In this case, consult a doctor. If, after all the tests, you were told that everything is fine with you, but you still continue to worry, go to the second doctor, but if it is confirmed there that you are healthy, then you are, and you are now just prone to OCD .

Other people are attacked by the obsessive thought to harm and even kill someone close to them or do something to themselves. At the same time, a person does not really want this, but this very thought haunts and frightens him with the fact that it comes to his mind at all.

In fact, this is a proven fact: there is no recorded case in the world that would lead to terrible consequences. Just the presence of these obsessive thoughts keeps a person from such actions. And the fact that they arise indicates that you not inclined to it, otherwise it wouldn't scare you.

Those who are inclined to something like this, they do not experience within themselves. They either act or wait, that is, they really want it and do not worry about it. If this scares you, then you are not like that, and this is the main thing.

Why did you have your problem? The following happened to you. Some crazy thought once visited you, and instead of saying to yourself: “Well, stupid things can come to mind,” and not attaching any importance to this, you would leave yourself alone, get scared and begin to analyze.

That is, at that moment some thought visited you, you believed it and believed that since you think so, it means that you are like that and can do something bad. You trusted without solid grounds this irrational thought, not knowing what is so absurd and can visit anyone healthy person, this is quite a common phenomenon. That thought, in turn, triggered an emotion in you, in our case, the emotion of fear, and off you go. Later, you got hung up on this thought, because it scared you, began to analyze a lot and endowed it with power (importance), so you now have a problem, and not at all because you are some kind of abnormal or mentally ill, that you can and want to do something terrible. You just have a disorder that is definitely treatable, and you definitely won’t do anything bad to anyone.

Thoughts themselves cannot make you do something, for this you need the present, desire and intention. All they can do is make you think, but nothing more. This, of course, is also very unpleasant, and how to deal with it, how to get rid of obsessive thoughts, will be below.

For others, obsessions may be related to everyday things, for example, "did I turn off the stove (iron)?" - a person thinks and checks a hundred times a day.

Some are afraid of getting infected with something and constantly or repeatedly wash their hands during the day, wash their apartment (bath), etc.

And someone for a long time can worry and obsessively think about their appearance (), or constantly worry and think about their behavior in public, control over themselves and their status in society.

In general, everyone has their own, and no matter how scary or acceptable what is imposed, it is all essentially the same - OCD only in different manifestations.

An example of how obsessive thinking can manifest itself

Let's briefly simple example let's see how often the habit of obsessive thinking can manifest itself, and what physically strengthens and reinforces this habit.

If you have a conflict or argument with someone, and some time has already passed, and the thoughts associated with the situation do not let go.

You continue to mentally, unconsciously scroll through this in your head, conduct an internal (virtual) dialogue with the opposite side, argue about something and find more and more justifications and evidence of your rightness or your guilt. You get angry, threaten and think: "You should have said such and such or done such and such."

This process can go on for quite some time until something grabs your attention.

You worry and get nervous over and over again, but in fact you are engaged in the most real, very harmful absurdity, which is reinforced and automatically moved emotional obsession state and anxiety.

The only right thing to do in this situation is to stop thinking about it, no matter how much you would like it and no matter how important you think it is.

But if you give in, and this compulsive process drags on, then it can be very difficult to gather yourself internally and stop the internal dialogue.

And you can exacerbate the problem even more if at some point you realize that you are not in control of the situation at all, you become even more afraid of these thoughts, you start fighting them in order to somehow distract yourself, and you start blaming and scolding yourself for everything that is now is happening to you.

But the guilt for everything that happens to you is not only yours, but also in the running mechanism, which has both a mental basis and a physical and biochemical component:

• certain neurons are excited, and stable neural connections are created, at which automatic reflex response;
• the body produces stress hormones (cortisol, aldosterone) and a mobilizing hormone - adrenaline;
• vegetative nervous system(VNS), and somatic symptoms appear - the muscles of the body tense up; increased heart rate, pressure, tension, sweating, trembling in the limbs, etc. Very often there is dry mouth, fever, lump in the throat, shortness of breath, that is, all signs of VVD (vegetative-vascular dystonia).

Remember: what to scold and be angry with yourself in this situation - crime against yourself, much here simply does not depend on you, it takes time and the right approach to stabilize all these symptoms, which will be discussed below.

By the way, you should not be afraid of these symptoms listed above, this is a completely normal reaction of the body to your anxiety state. The same as if there were real a threat, for example, a huge dog would run at you, and you would naturally be afraid of it. Immediately, the heart would pound, the pressure would rise, the muscles would tighten, breathing would become faster, and so on. These unpleasant symptoms are the consequences of ejection chemical elements and adrenaline, which mobilizes our body at the moment of danger.

Moreover, notice and realize the fact that all this happens in our body not only at the moment of a real threat, but also during fictitious, virtual, when there is no real danger now, no one attacks you, and nothing falls from above. The danger is only in our head - we think about something restless, wind ourselves up with some kind of disturbing thoughts and begin to tense up and get nervous.

The fact is that our brain simply does not feel the difference between what is happening in reality and a mental (mental) experience.

That is, all these strong, unpleasant and frightening symptoms can easily be caused by disturbing (negative) thoughts that will provoke some unwanted emotions, and those, in turn, unpleasant symptoms in the body. This is what many people constantly do, and then, in addition, they begin to be afraid of these natural symptoms and even bring themselves to PA () and.

Now, I think it will be difficult for you to immediately realize this, because this moment of the relationship between the psyche and the body requires a more detailed and deep explanation, but this will be discussed in other articles, but now, so that you can slowly begin to understand yourself, I will Again I suggest learning to observe yourself, your thoughts and emotions.

Understand where and what comes from, how thoughts, emotions and other related sensations arise; what happens unconsciously and what we consciously influence; how much it all depends on us, and how your thoughts affect your Current state.

How to get rid of obsessive thoughts, fears on your own?

First of all, you need to realize the fact that you cannot completely believe everything that comes to your mind, and you cannot associate (identify) yourself, your "I" only with your thoughts, because we are not our thoughts. Our thoughts are only a part of ourselves. Yes, very important, intellectual, necessary for us, but only a part of us.

Logic (thinking) is our main ally, it is a magnificent tool given to us by nature, but we still need to know how to use this tool correctly.

Most people are sure that ALL our thoughts are only our own thoughts, it is we who invent them and then think them over.

Indeed, since some thoughts arise in our head, then these are, of course, our thoughts, but besides this, they are to a large extent derivatives of various external and internal factors.

That is, what we can experience, and what thoughts now come to our mind, does not depend only on us whether we like it or not. All this directly will be connected with our mood at the moment (good or bad) and will be a consequence of circumstances already beyond our control and past experience.

If we had other attitudes, a different mood, a different past, for example, we would have been born to different parents or would now live in Africa - there would be completely different thoughts.

If some negative moment in the past had not happened to us, there would not have been a bad experience, therefore, there would not have been any obsessive thoughts.

When we associate ourselves, our "I" only with our thoughts, when we are sure that our thoughts are WE, then there is nothing left for us but to deeply believe in everything that comes to mind, but it can come such...

In addition, it is very important to realize that we are able to observe our thoughts, comment on them, evaluate, condemn and ignore them. That is, we are what can be attended to outside of thinking to be aware of oneself outside one's thoughts. And this suggests that we are not only our thoughts, we are something more - what can be called a soul or some kind of energy.

This is very important point in solving this problem. It is necessary to stop identifying yourself with your thoughts, stop believing that they are you, and then you will be able to see them from the side (detached).

Our body is talking to us all the time. If only we could take the time to listen.

Louise Hay

If you start observing yourself and your thoughts, you will quickly notice the fact that most of our thoughts in the head are nothing more than automatic thoughts, that is, they arise unconsciously, on their own without our desire and our participation.

And what is most interesting, most of these thoughts are repeated every day. These are 80-90% the same thoughts only in different variations.

And these are not just someone's words, this is confirmed scientific fact, based on numerous studies. In fact, every day we most often think and scroll through the same thing in our heads. And you can track it yourself.

Second step which I briefly wrote about in the article "", you cannot in any way fight obsessive thoughts, resist and try to get rid of them, dismiss them and forget.

Take care of yourself: if you try very hard not to think about something, then you already think about it.

If you strive to get rid of thoughts, switch or somehow drive them away, then they will overcome even stronger and more persistently.

Because by resisting themselves endow them with an even greater emotional charge and only increase internal tension, you begin to worry and get even more nervous, which, in turn, intensifies the symptoms (unpleasant physical sensations) that I wrote about above.

That's why key moment - do not struggle with thoughts, do not try to distract yourself and get rid of. In this way, you will save a lot of energy that you are now wasting on fighting them, without getting anything in return.

How to stop the obsessive internal dialogue if you can not fight?

At the moment when you were visited by obsessive thoughts, and you realized that these thoughts do not tell you something really necessary (useful) - it's just from time to time, repeatedly, like a broken record, a repetitive internal dialogue that gives you something something that is very disturbing and has not yet solved your problem - simply, impartially, indifferently, begin to ignore these thoughts, without trying to get rid of them.

Let these thoughts be in your head, allow them to be, and watch them. Look at them even if they scare you.

In another way, and perhaps it would be more correct to say, without entering into a dialogue with them, without analyzing You just contemplate them gently trying not to think about them.

Do not analyze what obsessive thoughts tell you, just observe them without delving into their essence. Always remember that these are just ordinary thoughts that you are not obliged to believe in, and you are not at all obliged to do what they say.

Don't avoid feeling

Also observe the emotions and sensations that arise in the body that cause these thoughts, even if they are very unpleasant for you. Take a closer look and feel what, how and at what moment is happening. This will give you an understanding of why your unpleasant symptoms occur and why at some point you start to feel worse.

Just like with thoughts, don't try to get rid of these feelings, give in to them even if you feel bad for a while. Remember that these are completely natural, although painful symptoms, and they have a reason. During the war, people did not experience such things, and after that they lived long and healthy.

These sensations are necessary accept and live to the end. And gradually inside of you, at a level deeper than our consciousness (in the unconscious), there will be a transformation of these sensations, and they themselves will weaken until at some point they stop bothering you at all. Read more about sensations in this.

Without struggling with internal processes, you can smoothly shift your attention to breathing, make it a little deeper and slower, this will speed up the recovery of the body (read more about proper breathing).

Pay attention to the world around you, people and nature - everything that surrounds you. Look at the texture of various things, listen to the sounds, and while doing something, direct all attention on this matter, that is, with full attention, plunge into real life.

Acting in this way, it is not necessary to do everything in the sequence I have described, do as you are doing now, the main thing is mindfully and attentively observe everything.

If thoughts return, let them be, but without mental analysis and struggle from your side.

Your indifference and calm attitude without fighting to these thoughts will significantly reduce or even deprive them of their emotional charge. With practice, you will understand this yourself.

Do not rush things, let everything take its natural course, as it should go. And these thoughts will surely go away. And they will leave without consequences or without serious consequences for you. It will turn out that you are calm and smooth, somewhere imperceptibly for yourself, naturally turn your attention to something else.

By learning not to fight thoughts, you learn to live when those thoughts are and when they are not. No annoying thoughts - fine, if there is - also normal.

Gradually, with a change in your attitude towards them, you will no longer be afraid of the appearance of any thoughts, because you realize that you can live in peace, without fear and without being tormented by them. And these thoughts in the head will become less and less, because without running away from them, without empowering them, they will lose their sharpness and begin to disappear on their own.

Arguing with obsessive thoughts and finding a logical solution

It happens that you, trying to get rid of a constantly overpowering, obsessive thought, are looking for some thoughts or mental solutions that would calm you down.

You are thinking intensely, perhaps arguing with yourself or trying to convince yourself of something, but by doing so, you only strengthen the problem from the inside.

In a dispute with obsessive thoughts, you won’t prove anything to yourself, even if you manage to find a thought that calms you for a while, soon obsessive thoughts in the form of doubts and anxieties will return, and everything will start in a circle.

Trying to replace thoughts or convince yourself of something doesn't work with obsessive states.

Obsessive States: Possible Mistakes and Caveats

Don't expect quick results. You could cultivate your problem for years, and in a few days change your attitude to thoughts, learn to observe them impartially, not succumbing to their provocation - it will be difficult, but this really needs to be learned. Some will have to overcome a strong fear, especially in the beginning, but it will get better later on.

Something you can succeed almost immediately, and someone will immediately feel better, others will need time to feel how it all happens, but everyone, without exception, will have recessions, the so-called "kickbacks" or "pendulum", when the past state and behavior are returned. It is important here not to be disappointed, not to stop and continue to practice.

Very bad to talk with someone about your condition, about what you are experiencing, to share and discuss your experiences with a non-professional person.

This can only ruin everything. Firstly, because you once again remind yourself, your psyche, your unconscious about what is happening to you, and this does not contribute to recovery in any way.

Secondly, if the one to whom you are telling something, showing his initiative, begins to ask: "Well, how are you, is everything all right? Are you already well?" or "Never mind, it's all nonsense" - such questions and words can simply destroy the healing process. You yourself can feel what you feel at the moment when you were told this, take a closer look at your inner feelings, you are clearly getting worse, you are starting to feel sick acutely.

Therefore, it is very important to exclude any conversations on this topic with other people, except for a specialist doctor. Thus, by not communicating what you are experiencing, you will remove a lot of reminders (internal messages) that you are supposedly sick, and stop developing your problem further.

Trying not to fight with obsessive thoughts, you watch them, but at the same time you internally want and try to get rid of them, fight them, that is, in fact, the same struggle takes place.

Therefore, a very important initial step here will be to capture and fix the self wish get rid of intrusive thoughts. Do not follow this desire, just be aware of it within yourself.

You don't have to wait impatiently for these thoughts to go away and not to reappear.

It's impossible, because you can't fool the memory, but to induce amnesia, friends, well, it's imprudent. If you keep waiting for some of your thoughts to disappear and never come back, you are already creating resistance and struggle, which means that the problem will remain a problem, and you will continue to dwell on it.

The key to solving it is not that there will be no more of these or similar thoughts, but in your correct approach - in change in attitude (perception) towards them. And then you just won't care much about what comes to your mind from time to time.

Notice this fact when you are already immersed in an obsessive internal dialogue, or you have some kind of obsessive fear, sound logic completely stops working. You seem to be able to remember or think about something right and necessary at this moment, you can say sensible words to yourself, but if you didn’t succeed in immediately following them, then the logic is no longer perceived, the obsessive state stubbornly dictates its own. Even understanding all the absurdity of this obsession (and many people understand), it is impossible to get rid of it either by willpower or logic.

Impartial(no rating) conscious observation without logical analysis(because, in essence, obsessive thoughts are absurd, and even if in some cases they come on business, they only remind and signal that we need some practical actions to solve the problem, and not about what these thoughts need to think), without identifying yourself with this state (that is, to observe everything that happens inside you: the thought process and sensations from the outside, you are separate, the obsessive state (thoughts and sensations) are separate), and natural, soft, without resistance to these thoughts switching (when you don’t try in every way on purpose, by an effort of will, to get distracted, get rid of, forget, etc., that is, you accept everything that is happening to you now), is the most correct way out of the situation and the natural process of recovery (liberation from an obsessive state and thoughts), except for .

If you had done this in the beginning, you wouldn't have this problem now.

P.S. Always remember. In any case, no matter what your intrusive thoughts tell you, there is no point in delving into them repeatedly and scrolling through the same thing a hundred and a hundred times.

Even if some kind of obsession suddenly turns out to be justified and will inform you about a real case or some real problem, then you must solve it in a practical way ( actions), not thoughts. You just need to do what needs to be done; what the imposing thought tells you, and then there will be no reason to worry and think about it.

Sincerely, Andrey Russkikh

I had already prepared this article for a long time, but I still could not write it for the reason that I was not sure that I had a complete idea of how to get rid of intrusive thoughts.

Now I have experienced first hand how to deal with such thoughts and am fully prepared to tell you about it.

Perhaps some of my readers think that since I started creating this site, I have completely got rid of all personal problems. Indeed, I have already changed a lot by the time of the first entries in this blog, but my current state cannot be called complete freedom from negative emotions, prejudices and fears.

My position can be described as a struggle with myself, during which the experience and materials for these articles are born. Of course, in this confrontation between my true self and the primitive, instinctive, emotional self, the first gradually wins.

But this struggle continues: two steps back and four steps forward. Self-development stems from the awareness of one's shortcomings and work on them. If there is no struggle, then this does not speak of a final victory, but rather of surrender.

After all, self-development is an endless process. I keep running into some problems and struggling with them. Including intrusive thoughts.

Mind "gum"

These thoughts have always been with me. They could occupy my head and make me nervous, endlessly mentally referring to the same experiences. It was like mental gum.

I constantly chewed the same thoughts in my head, tried to resolve them, to untie some imaginary knot. But from my attempts to weaken it, on the contrary, it tied even more strongly.

I remember how, back in my early childhood, I could not stop thinking about some things that I could not think about at all. The habit of my brain endlessly “processing” some experiences and ideas must have been exacerbated during times of other psychological problems.

Recently, I realized that I learned to work with obsessive thoughts. Moreover, I am ready to formulate a method that allows me to get rid of them. I realized that this article might now finally appear.

Intrusive thoughts are emotions

This is the first thing you must understand. Obsessive thoughts are emotional, unconscious, irrational nature. They are connected with your fears, anxieties and complexes deprived of everything reasonable.

That is why they are obsessive. The emotions that form in you make you constantly think about something. They seem to signal “Problem! Problem! We need to find a solution!"

It's like a notification in Windows or something operating system, which appears as an icon and will irritate your eyes until you update some program, remove a virus, or install the correct driver.

We can say that obsessive thoughts have a positive function. They remind you of the problems you need to solve. And you can’t just take and turn off these “notifications”. It's hard to starve to death when your brain constantly reminds you to eat.

But, unfortunately, obsessive thoughts do not always tell us about some real problem. The mechanism of the emergence of these thoughts is quite subtle. And if, for some reason, the “standard settings” of this mechanism get lost, then natural human fears and worries can take an extreme form, manifesting themselves in the form of obsessive thoughts, which are very difficult to get rid of.

Everyone knows how normal concern for one's health can turn into hypochondria, how a natural fear of danger threatens to turn into paranoia.

And now you become a regular visitor to medical forums, and thoughts about your health do not leave your head. Maybe you constantly think about danger while you are on the street. Or you can’t get out of your head the thought of what people think of you, although you yourself don’t see any point in thinking about it.

The conclusion I want to draw is that obsessive thoughts are based on emotions. Therefore, they do not have a rational nature. Therefore, they cannot be fought with logic.

This is very important conclusion. I have watched myself a lot, trying to understand how these thoughts appear and how they disappear, how my mind tries to deceive and confuse me. Earlier, in the evening, when I was very tired, I could not stop some thoughts.

For example, I could start thinking something bad about myself, blaming myself. No matter how skillful the inner lawyer turns out to be, who, with the help of logic and common sense tried to convince me that everything was not so bad (although of course he did not rule out problems), the blaming side always prevailed, and everything became even more confusing. The more I tried to justify myself and get rid of annoying thoughts with the help of thoughts, the more I became confused and more these thoughts overcame me. This sport with oneself led to the fact that the invisible knot was tightened even more.

The next day, in the morning, with a fresh mind, I didn’t even want to think about this problem. If I started to think about yesterday's "dialogue" with myself, then I understood that the problem was there, but it was greatly inflated and exaggerated by my condition. I realized that the problem needs to be solved, not thought about. There is no point in these thoughts.

After a while, I realized what the deceit and deceit of these thoughts are. If you try to destroy them with logic, they will still prevail, as they are irrational and illogical and make you believe in absurd ideas that common sense is powerless over.

You Can't Eliminate Intrusive Thoughts with Logic

If you are set on self-blame, then you will continue to blame yourself, even if you have nothing to blame yourself for. Because this is your mood and it is from it that these thoughts arise, and not because of some real situation! Even if you suddenly manage to convince yourself for a minute of the groundlessness of these thoughts, then after a while they will return again if you resist them and continue to logically rebuff them.

If you have such a mood in which you think that you are sick, that something bad will happen to your health, then no positive results analyzes will not convince you otherwise. “What if the tests turned out to be inaccurate?”, “What if I have something else?” you will think.

And you will not see the end of these thoughts, no matter how absurd from the standpoint of common sense they are.

It is useless to try to refute them. Because it is impossible. They will come back and attack you with new absurd arguments that you will believe in because you are in such a state. emotional state, which gives rise to these thoughts about non-existent problems.

Remember the state when you are worried about something. No matter how you convince yourself that everything will be fine, that there is no reason to worry, your perception, distorted by nervous tension and excitement, draws you a perspective in the darkest colors. Not because everything is really bad, but because you now perceive everything that way. If in this state you start to think a lot and talk about the future, then your negative perception will attract your thoughts to the “negative” pole and it will be difficult to break out of this attraction.

How to get rid of obsessive thoughts

You will need common sense, but only at the very beginning.

First of all, you need to figure out if your obsessive thoughts are based on some real problem. It happens that mental chewing gum harasses you, exaggerating the problem. But an exaggerated problem does not mean the absence of one.

So think about what are the reasons for these thoughts. Getting rid of thoughts, you should not ignore the problem, if there is one. For example, it seems to you that you have some kind of illness and thoughts about it do not leave your mind.

Maybe these are really not groundless fears, and you have symptoms of some kind of disease. If so, go see a doctor. If you have already done this and you have not found anything - forget it.

Whether there is a problem or not, there is no point in thinking about it all the time! You either try to solve it if it exists, or you forget about everything if it does not exist.

This is the only moment in the fight against obsessive experiences in which you need to apply logic and common sense.

What to do?

Choose a moment in time when you are in the best morale, when you have more optimism and strength than usual. For example, in the morning, when you are full of energy, after exercise or after .

Convince yourself that it makes no sense to scroll through the same thoughts thousands of times in your head. That these thoughts are deception or exaggeration, the purpose of which is to confuse you.

Be well aware of the following things

• you will not come to a solution to a problem if you constantly think about it
• obsessive thoughts have no rational basis, and if they are associated with some kind of problem, then you will solve it, instead of constantly returning to it with thoughts
• you can’t get rid of mental gum with logical reasoning and thinking

Realize the absurdity of obsessive thoughts

Further, you can once again, with the help of a few logical theses, expose the absurdity of obsessive thoughts. For example: “I have nothing to fear, because the tests showed nothing”, “panic attacks do not die, I have read about this more than once”, “no one is trying to harm me”, “even if there really are things to be afraid of , you don’t need to think about them 1000 times a day, this will only lead to nervous exhaustion.

Your argument against obsessive thoughts should be clear and concise. You should not get involved in an argument with yourself. Remember, in a long argument with obsessive thoughts, you are doomed to failure, in which emotions and fears will prevail over logic and mind, and negative perception itself will “pull” thoughts to the negative pole.

To destroy the force of this attraction, you need to think less. When you think about annoying thoughts, chew them endlessly, you only increase them.

Give yourself permission to ignore intrusive thoughts.

Tell yourself that you will no longer think about what you think about all day and what torments and torments you. Indeed, why constantly chew mental gum when it does not bring any sense?

An obsessive thought is the repetition of the same thought in different ways. You will not get any new and valuable information from it, you will not come to any decision.

Therefore, give yourself the installation not to get carried away by fruitless reflections. After you've said it to yourself, made a promise you won't break, draw an invisible line. After this trait, you no longer pay attention to intrusive thoughts.

Don't wait for thoughts to come back no more

They will return again and again. Tune in like this: "Let them come back, what's the difference, I realized that these thoughts are deception and do not relate to the real problem."

Thoughts will come back, sometimes you will again begin to untie this knot in your head. As soon as you notice that you are again carried away by this, smoothly divert your attention to the side. Do not argue with these thoughts, do not be upset that they have come (and they will come), ignore them, treat them with complete indifference.

If you suddenly need to remind yourself of the absurdity of these thoughts, do not go beyond short formulations: "nothing will happen to me, and that's it." Don't get involved in an argument you can never win. All the endless arguments that again make you afraid or nervous are lies and deceit.

Remember what I said in the article: if you are in a psychological state in which you tend to worry about your health or your future or your loved ones, then your mind will focus on this fear, no matter how absurd this fear is. . Don't turn your mind against yourself.

You must know the puzzle toy, which is like a tube. If you put into both ends of this tube index fingers different hands and try to release them with the help of physical effort, pulling your hands in different directions, then nothing will come of it, the tube will only squeeze your fingers tighter. And if you relax and do not pull, everything will work out.

The same applies to intrusive thoughts. No need to want to get out of them by all means. Relax, "kill", let them be.

Be indifferent!

Your indifference to intrusive thoughts will deprive intrusive thoughts of their emotional content, which fills them with such power that you sometimes cannot control. Over time, you will learn to manage your attention and notice those moments when you again began to think about what you should not.

Then thoughts will leave you forever.

But there is no need to look forward to when this will happen: “when will they leave!”, “I try not to pay attention to them, but they still do not go out of my head!”. Such thoughts are not necessary!

Arm yourself with salutary indifference: thoughts do not bother you - it's good, they returned - that's also normal. No need to turn thoughts about the appearance of obsessive thoughts into obsessive thoughts!

It's no big deal that repetitive thoughts keep coming to you. If you've stripped them of their emotional "charge" and try to ignore them, they won't get on your nerves like they used to. In this case, they become just an annoying notification window (you may have seen such windows on your computer) that appears in your head from time to time.

And it's not so scary anymore. You can live with this. Thoughts appear occasionally, but they no longer grab your attention or confuse you. They are just short signals in the head that come and go.

When I began to relate to obsessive thoughts in this way, they left my head and I learned to deal with them. A fighting intrusive thoughts is not fighting, if we perceive the struggle as a violent resistance. Relax!

Conclusion

I have already said in other articles that mental illnesses: panic attacks, obsessive thoughts can either break you down or make you stronger (as in the statement of a famous philosopher).

Dealing with panic attacks can teach you. Working on getting rid of depression will help you find the source of happiness in yourself. And trying to control obsessive thoughts will teach you to control your attention and control your mind.

Arm yourself with patience and work on yourself, then you will not only get rid of your ailments, but also gain valuable and useful experience as a result of this, which will be useful in your life!

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