intrusive thoughts

[roachford]

Hi.

I'm not sure that this is OCD, but lately, I have been tending to get myself wrapped up in a thought pattern of bad things happening to me, that seem unlikely or even downright improbbable. But, I find it extremely easy to believe these bad things are going to happen.

I was reading in the paper a few weeks ago about a bloke who had his credit card details stolen via the internet and somebody used them for all sorts of nasty things. Now, I'm convinced that this is going to happen to me and I'll get in all sorts of trouble. So much so that I have been worrying about if for weeks.

I have other similar worries, but is this a type of obsessional thought process?????

Any words of advice would be very welcome as I feel I'm worrying to my wits end.

[Antipodes]

Hi roachford,

I am sorry you're having these problems. It sounds me that you are describing what is termed "Cognitive Distortions".

Many people, especially those suffering depression experience this in one form or another (including me).

I would urge you to discuss this with your GP, psychologist or psychiatrist. The likely outcome (I guess - because I'm in NZ) will be a referral for CBT (Cognitive Behaviour Therapy) or a component of CBT that deals with this area.

Hope fully you will learn the required skills (mental truckery) to enable you to "trap" these thoughts as they occur and deal/discard them.
CBT helped me - a lot.

I hope this is of some help.

Antipodes

[belly]

hi,it sounds like intrusive thoughts to me,which is part of ocd.I have intrusive thoughts a lot,things like certain words come into my head for no reason,and they can be very believable,like u said.I used to worry about what they meant,and that they must vbe true because i thought them.But what i have discovered,is that thoughts are not necessarily true.Now i challenge them when they come up,like if i suddenly think somethings like 'bet u fancy them',i check it out with my body,and mind,and think,do i feel attracted to them,and what do i actually feel,and it turns out i dont after all.Or other times,i pay not attentions to the thoughts,and they just go away,or i focus on something else.Im not a lot better and ignoring them,and telling myself 'there goes another one of those thoughts',and they go away.You can drive yourself mad by trying to analyse them cant u!...