How to Stop Intrusive Thoughts: A Simple Guide for a Calmer Mind

Intrusive thoughts are concluding, distressing, and horrifying. They come to your mind out of the blue and they usually act contrary to your values, beliefs or intentions. You might even ask yourself, “Why am I thinking this?”, “What does this say about me?”. However, what people do not realize is that — intrusive thoughts are typical of being a human being.

In this blog, we shall find out how to overcome intrusive thoughts in a healthy and functional manner. Whether you need OCD self-help, because you have been filled with anxiety and depression, or you just want to get a stronger grasp of what your thoughts are up to, then this guide was made to assist you.

What Are Intrusive Thoughts?

Intrusive thoughts are some undesirable repetitive thoughts which can be distressing. They are either violent, sexual, blasphemous or just weird. Such thoughts are usually related to such conditions as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) or anxiety. Nevertheless, it can happen to people who have no such conditions.

Why Intrusive Thoughts Occur?

Stress, anxiety and emotional imbalances tend to catalyze the occurrence of intrusive thoughts. To such individuals, these thoughts get stuck, more specifically they loop and repeat. The individual can attempt to counter them with mental rituals or action to be avoided.

Stop Intrusive Thoughts: What Actually Helps

Are you finding ways – How to get rid of Intrusive Thoughts? Well, you are at the right place. We will help you in - How to Stop Intrusive Thoughts. Please go through the following OCD self-help:

The first thing to do is to accept the thought instead of struggling with it. When one tries to evade a thought, they often get more powerful. Otherwise by accepting a thought, you are not liking it or believing in it. It just implies that you just allow it to exist without condemning or opposition.

Then do not make the thought too important. You are not characterized by the presence of intrusive thoughts. Any person may have a weird or undesired idea at one moment. It is how we react that counts. When you put a thought in the category of just noise or mental junk, you are depriving it of its emotional strength. It is not something that you have to feel guilty and scared about.

The other useful tool is Exposure and Response Prevention, or ERP. The technique is common with OCD self-help and treatment. It will train you how to confront your fears without having to do the rituals or even the self-compulsions. As a rather radical example, in case you have the intrusive thought of harming a person, you would not attempt to neutralize it. You would tolerate the pain and continue with your life. ERP is so far possible with a trained therapist or on your own with the help of trusted self-help programs, one of them is on ocd-anxiety.com.

Wrapping Up

The fight against intrusive thoughts should not be attempted: it is the responses that have to be altered.

Your fear can be handled with the right aids, which are acceptance, ERP, mindfulness, and support and regain control of your life, so you can live a quieter existence.

Don’t forget: you are not what you think. Those are the instruments of your awareness.