3 types of intrusive thoughts and what to do about them

oh that's bad timing let's talk about the three types of intrusive thoughts who has them if they're harmful to you and what you can do to get them to stop have you ever had an unwanted thought or image that gets stuck in your head usually you can ignore it you can move on but sometimes it just keeps popping back into your brain these thoughts can be sticky uncomfortable and likely not something you actually really want to think about so if you don't want to think about these thoughts why are they happening it is intrusive you didn't invite it you're also having a hard time getting rid of this thought it seems like the more times you push these thoughts away it just comes back stronger why am i thinking about a thought i don't want you may have heard people say this before everyone has intrusive thoughts but just because everyone has them doesn't mean that yours don't matter an intrusive thought can literally be anything it can be random images disturbing and violent ideas it can be random in the sense that the brain continues to say what if what if this were going to happen these can feel more important than just thoughts some can feel them they can be constant relentless make you cringe make you even question yourself because you're having these thoughts i find that these thoughts love to come when you want them the least they're definitely not easy to ignore it is like a relentless child needing your attention waiting for you to put value onto what they just said repeating that over and over and over again dad dad dad dad dad so the question is are these intrusive thoughts harmful to you the short answer is no they're actually harmless but if you obsess over them you put value to them you even try to get them to stop then that is where it can be harmful in the way that it interferes in your life this can often be a sign of a mental health condition often intrusive thoughts can be a symptom of anxiety depression ocd when we say that everyone has intrusive thoughts somebody might have a thought that comes to their mind it causes a little bit of concern it's like well that was weird the thought comes and then it goes if someone is struggling with a mental health condition these thoughts come and they come and they come and they come that is usually accompanied by anxiety by fear by meaning the brain is trying to interpret what just happened it says that this must mean something important that right there is the trap once we start putting meaning on these thoughts then we just put value on them once they have value they want to keep coming back making individuals often feel bad about themselves intrusive thoughts have many forms but here are three common types of intrusive thoughts sexual thoughts it is natural for a sexual thought to happen they often come and they go they're very automatic they can be intrusive they come in the form of worry sexual intrusive thoughts can often include images questions it can really be about anything anyone violent thoughts some may have harm thoughts these thoughts may be related to hurting yourself hurting somebody else it could be an intrusive thought that is pushing someone in front of a car it could be fairly aggressive it can make you wonder if you would ever act upon these thoughts these thoughts can feel very real very graphic because they're not just thoughts they're feelings that are with it i call this next one just junk thoughts you have no control over them they have zero relevance to your life you can have a thought about an interaction you had with somebody else it can just be a word that repeats in your brain over and over and over again certain images that just keep coming back that have no value whatsoever more than them causing distress they may cause annoyance individuals know that these thoughts don't matter yet they can't get them out of their brain so here's what you do with them nothing wow mate crap video bro wait wait wait wait hear me out nothing means don't come up with a list of things you're going to do to get these thoughts to go away the second you devise a plan the more thoughts you're probably likely to have this is because you're putting value on these thoughts we're saying they matter enough for us to problem solve it and get rid of them when really we need to treat a thought as a thought so with this nothing attitude we see a thought as a thought doesn't matter if it's a harm thought scary thought or a simple plain boring thought that just won't stop we cannot stop these thoughts instead we can practice responding to them in a different way something like i'm loving these thoughts right now you're welcome to stick around join the party i may or may not have these thoughts all day this is great that's awesome i love it cool there's another thought oh there's another thought oh there's another thought when i share this most people are like that doesn't work for the thoughts i'm having mine are too graphic mine are too weird i i shouldn't be thinking of this i can't say wow thanks for the thought people think that they're different because of the thoughts they're having but thoughts are just thoughts let it be a thought and that is why we're responding to it this way invite invite invite it is more enticing to a thought when you invite a thought you're leaving the gates open you're welcome to come on in it doesn't want to come in but when you say no i gotta stop this thing how do i stop it i'm going to ask all these questions on all these forums and i'm going to push it away and i'm going to distract and it's actually saying yes you're revving up the engines you're feeding me you're getting me some gas i'm going to keep coming back i love that rise i'm getting out of you you invite it it doesn't want to stay so you might be hearing this and saying okay so well when do i get these thoughts to go away then we don't put a timeline on it we don't expect them to we don't look for freedom we accept where we are right now we enjoy the ride the thoughts will slow down when they slow down and if we can keep responding to it as if we pretty much don't care about them they don't want to stick around very long our job in the meantime is to live life let thoughts be don't fix them don't make sense of them don't label them don't change your life based off of a thought if you had an intrusive thought about driving and you're choosing not to drive you're putting power on that thought if you had an intrusive thought about your child and you are choosing to not be around them you're putting value on that thought we want to live the life do the things we want to do it's doing what you want to do no matter what thought comes your way so are you going to try it try nothing it's worth your time to do nothing that's a weird conundrum time and nothing well you know what will power you up subscribing to this channel thanks so much for watching and i will see you next time so have you ever had an unwanted and an unwanted no no no wanted

Channel: OCD and Anxiety

Views: 183,770

Keywords: mental health, obsessive compulsive disorder, science behind ocd, treatments for ocd, intrusive thoughts, intrusive thoughts ocd, ocd, intrusive thoughts anxiety, how to stop intrusive thoughts, anxiety, what are intrusive thoughts, ocd treatment, ocd intrusive thoughts, intrusive thoughts help, intrusive thoughts anxiety or ocd, how to get over intrusive thoughts, how to stop intrusive thoughts and ocd, intrusive thoughts ocd help, how to get rid of intrusive thoughts ocd

Id: e10YQeowkhc

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 24 2022