Irrational fears/intrusive thoughts

[clc]

We have all had intrusive thoughts and irrational fears which is why we are here. So I thought it would be useful to write these down so we can start to conquer them a well as see who else has them.

I saw this done on an old NMP thread and it interesting to see how similar everyone's were.

My fears currently are:

That I might kill myself - now have a fear of cars, knives and bridges. This all stemed from a random thought I had whilst driving my car.
That I won't get better
That I will never be happy
That I will lose my job and therefore my house
That my boyfriend and family members will die
That I end up in a mental institution

My previous fears have been:

That I have cancer/brain tumour due to headaches/ many other illnesses.
That I am a lesbian
That my boyfriend (not current) might kill me
That I might accidentally kill someone and go to jail

I'm sure I have had many more and these thoughts har caused me much distress over the years. I am now battling this anxiety and all the problems it is causing me!

I hope you can share or even disuse with others your worries as it is nice to find people in similar situations.

---------- Post added at 12:31 ---------- Previous post was at 12:08 ----------

I also have a fear of flying and open water.

[hallam11]

Hi there,

Having so many irrational and intrusive thoughts can really slow you down. It is something I really worry about too!

My thoughts are

Fear of harming children
Fear of killing someone and go to jail (like yourself)
Fear that I will end up in a mental institution (like yourself)
Fear that I have a disease/something that will kill me (this is not the biggest of my fears and is only a slight worry)
Fear that I wont find anyone to be with and if I do they will leave because of me

I guess our worries and fears do have certain similarities, illness etc. For me its a fear of losing control (killing someone etc) or not having control (illness). By the way I only just realised about the control thing! It is really hard to live with all these fears and worries and sometimes I think just stop, stop worrying and stop thinking...alot easier said than done I know!
I was watching CSI:NY the other day and one of the characters said this to another character who was scared of letting someone down

"You can choose to live in a place of fear or you can believe in the best version of yourself" I like this and I remind myself of it over and over again.

[Hello1234]

I fear that if I do exercise I will drop dead and die, or if I go off on my own at work I will pass out somewhere, even though I have been checked out find, do these thoughts ever get better? Or do you just ave to try ignore them? I M currently taking citalopram day 5

[theharvestmouse]

Had very similar thoughts to clc and Haslam.

[Worriedgirl87]

I'm scared that I will die.

I'm scared someone I know will die.

Scared I will never be able to finish college or make anything of myself because I'm
Always scared of dying and get panic attacks All The time

Scared of being kidnapped.

Scared of diseases.

Scared of medicine. Side effects.

Scared of sleeping, afraid I wont wake up.

Scared to exercise.

Scared of driving.

Scared of planes hitting my apartment,

Scared of everything that includes dying .

[macc noodle]

:D
I fear that if I do exercise I will drop dead and die, or if I go off on my own at work I will pass out somewhere, even though I have been checked out find, do these thoughts ever get better? Or do you just ave to try ignore them? I M currently taking citalopram day 5

I have been through this particular problem myself. They are indicative of a high level of anxiety related to your health.

Having just had the benefit of 6 months CBT, which I found to be very helpful, I now know that the answer to these feelings is to do the exercise and you will see that you will not drop dead and to be on your own and you will not pass out.

I do fully realise that this is far easier said than done since the fear is very real to you and the more you avoid the situations you fear, the greater the fear becomes. And, at the end of the day, your safety mechanisms allow you to function at a level in the rest of your everyday living.

I still worry that I will have a heart attack whilst I am doing my aerobic activity but have to tell myself that I will not, and that I have proved this to myself many times before. :D

Perhaps you could ask your GP about help for these issues?

Macc Noodle
xx