Thoughts can be a very important part of our lives because they allow us to realize how we feel and act, help us think and make sense of our daily experience, the problem arises when these thoughts become obsessive and limit our actions. thinking doesn’t help us and, in fact, there are times when thoughts can be toxic.
There are certain thoughts that, instead of helping us, block us and produce sensations like anxiety and distress, for example, imagine someone who doesn’t know if they closed the car door and keep thinking about it, even if they’ve tried learning to deal with repetitive thoughts can help them regain their emotional well-being.
- We generally reflect on our concerns in finding solutions to our problems.
- In this way we come to discover new points of view that help us to manage in a lighter way what is happening.
- However.
- This natural process of internal reflection do not always occur as expected.
- And instead of giving us more clarity.
- It obscures our judgment.
- Entering a spiral of negative thoughts that are repeated over and over again.
Thoughts become intruders in our minds, and if we pay attention to them they can become obsessions that limit our actions. This need to ruminate about what concerns us can happen in any situation, for example when we are at work, buying in the store. market or brush our teeth; without realizing it, they can occupy all our mental space, also affecting the mood.
Obsessive thoughts are repetitive, recurrent and involuntary ideas that are often focused on concerns, fears and anxieties that prevent us from focusing on the present, with anxiety and stress being the main causes of this type of thinking, which can also affect your behaviors.
Imagine a person who cannot get the obsession out of his head, this idea will probably make it cleaner and avoid certain places that you consider dirty, this type of negative thinking can also appear in the form of mental images that are repeated several times, without any control It creates a kind of repetitive circle from which it can be very difficult to get out.
It’s like you’re trapped in a hurricane of thoughts that spinning on itself with enormous force. Rumination is so intense that it can even create an addiction: the more you try to stop thinking, the more obsessive thoughts appear.
Intense anxiety disorder or prolonged stress can trigger invasive thoughts that temporarily interfere with our daily lives. Being in touch with negative thoughts that generate fears and doubts is natural for all people at certain times in life. eventually become obsessive thoughts.
A thought becomes pathological when we start believing in him and not questioning him, for example imagines a mother who thinks she can steal her child, if she rejects the idea directly it is an intrusive thought, but it is not an obsession because it does not give importance to her. While we can all have these kinds of thoughts at some point, the truth is that they usually occur more often in people with obsessive-compulsive disorder (ODO).
People with obsessive-compulsive disorder or those who simply experience a lot of anxiety may experience different types of obsessive thoughts, here are some of the most common examples in people with these types of problems.
These kinds of thoughts feed on each other and create negative consequences on people’s lives, for example, if you think of a man who is obsessed with reviewing his work several times, he may never feel satisfied and therefore arrive very late every day because of his obsession.
Some proven solutions or consequences of being trapped in obsessive thoughts are:
Every time you try to make obsessive thoughts disappear, it gives you more strength to repeat yourself over and over again, imagine that you can look at them from afar as if they were cars passing by a road, so you’re not attached to them and can let them go through acceptance.
By moving it further, you trick your brain into actually losing its intensity and the thought may disappear. One phrase you can say to yourself is: “I’ll think about it later, some other time. “
Don’t let your obsessions control you. Instead, catch them. To do this, every time an obsession occurs, can you say the word?Out loud. This way, you’ll stop the thought that bothers you.
Set a moment for your obsessive thoughts, for example, I will think of my fear of getting dirty four to five in the afternoon, so you will govern the situation rather than being overwhelmed by your negative thoughts.
Practicing a kind of relaxation technique, such as deep breathing or Jacobson’s gradual relaxation, when anxiety comes, can be very useful in neutralizing obsessions.
Therefore, obsessive thoughts can interfere with our lives, forcing us to control it completely. If we start accepting them and questioning them, it will be easier for us to manage them. Remember that we are much more than our thoughts: if we learn to let go of them, we will be freed from the excessive worries that only make our lives worse.