Learning to Navigate through Our Thoughts
Did you ever consider the impact of the million unnoticed thoughts that occupy your mind each day? We exist within these thoughts like a fish lives in water – mostly oblivious to their existence, yet shaped by their influence. There are instances when we recognize thoughts that evoke discomfort and prompt a futile struggle to alter our thinking pattern. However, in a reality where our thoughts seem like eyeglasses painting our vision, battling or overthinking often causes more harm than good. This article will teach you how to manage and redirect your thoughts, thus changing your experience of the world.
Understanding Cognitive Defusion
This technique, known as cognitive defusion, will help you step back from your thoughts and evaluate them without bias. This process allows you to choose whether you adopt the thoughts or select a different ‘pair of glasses.’ Cognitive defusion is crucial for regulating emotions and managing depressions and anxieties. Learning to differentiate yourself from your thoughts provides control and prevents them from ruling your mental health. With the prevalence of mental health issues, everyone would benefit from mastering cognitive defusion, even if it remains a largely untaught skill.
In the following sections, we will address how to identify and separate your thoughts to curate the ones that influence your mood, choices, and overall happiness. Despite the condition, whether OCD, ADHD, or anxiety, distinguishing between impulsive and intrusive thoughts is essential.
Defining Intrusive Thoughts
Intrusive thoughts are unwanted images or words that appear in your mind, irrespective of your present circumstances. Their disturbing nature and seeming irrelevance to reality can unintentionally consume your attention. Such thoughts may cause you to question your inherent nature, leading to substantial distress, especially for people with OCD.
For individuals with OCD, intrusive thoughts manifest as persistent, upsetting, and irrational obsessions that go against one’s core beliefs, causing severe anxiety. People may attempt to suppress or neutralize these obsessions through repetitive physical or mental activities known as compulsions.
Some intrusive thoughts may revolve around contamination fears, such as being infected by germs, illnesses, chemicals, or even emotions. This fear can result in excessive cleanliness or avoidance behavior. Thoughts about self-harm or harming others are also common, leading to relentless checking, assurance-seeking, and evasion tendencies.
Six Common Types of Intrusive Thoughts
Understanding that intrusive thoughts are typical and do not define you is crucial. Various studies reveal that almost everyone experiences these thoughts occasionally.
Impulsive and unwanted disturbing thoughts are standard among calm, anxious, healthy, and OCD-inflicted individuals. However, these thoughts can be particularly loud and overwhelming for people suffering from OCD or anxiety disorders, causing them to respond in manners that amplify the disturbing thoughts.
The following sections will review the six most common types of intrusive thoughts.
Thoughts of Self-Harm: This includes thoughts of suicide, purposeful crashing of vehicles, cutting oneself, or uncontrollable violence against oneself.
Thoughts of Harming Others: Common examples include thoughts of pushing someone off the stairs or plotting harm against a loved one.
Sexual Thoughts: Thoughts of committing inappropriate sexual acts, visualizing someone naked, or persistently worrying about sexual or gender identity are all included here.
Religious or Immoral Thoughts: Thoughts relating to sinning or violating religious principles fall under this category.
Self-Doubts: Worries about competence at work, possibly making mistakes, potential embarrassment, or concern about one’s feelings for a spouse also constitute intrusive thoughts.
Health and Contamination Fears: Fears of being contaminated by germs, suffering from serious diseases, or contaminating others are also prevalent.
Unwanted thoughts related to past traumas, bad memories, or flashbacks have also been categorized, as they correlate more with PTSD than random thoughts.
Tackling Intrusive Thoughts
Understanding that these thoughts do not reflect upon who you are is the first step towards dealing with intrusive thoughts. People with OCD are typically more susceptible to obsessing about the meanings behind these thoughts. Attempts to suppress or control these thoughts tend to amplify them instead of diminishing them. Intrusive thoughts do not translate into actions, even though they might imply so.
Therapists specializing in OCD treatment often use exposure therapy, and while it initially heightens anxiety, over time, it conditions the brain to recognize that these thoughts are not threatening. However, it is highly recommended to seek professional help if experiencing persistent intrusive thoughts, rather than attempting self-led exposure therapy.
Just because you think something, it doesn’t mean it’s true or that you’ll act on it. If a thought distresses you, it is even less likely for it to dictate your actions. The differentiation between having a thought and acting on it plays a crucial role in dealing with intrusive thoughts.