intrusive thoughts. how to control them?

[T*]

Sometimes I think of these thoughts as my unspoken tourettes, its hapoening a lot more now where horrible thought pop into my head about people and have to gight really hard to stop myself from saying them to people. Sometimes they are really horrible , like wanting to tell my partner I killed his mum or that I despise having sex with him ect, none of what I feel I need to say is true. Othertimes its quite humourous but is also as bad because not only is it rude but also very innapropriate. Today I had a horrible urge to make a microphone with my hands and shout "wide load coming through" about my childs nursery nurse. Or sighning for a package earlier I had another urge to ask him " is there something in your pocket or are you just pleased to see me". I always have a little laugh with myself about it after, but while im in that situation its just annoying and make me panic that im actually going to say thsse things, which I have on one occassion.

[NoPoet]

Hi, this is probably nothing more than anxiety-related obsessional thoughts. While it feels like a compulsion to say these things, people usually only act on compulsions that they enjoy or give them a sense of security or control.

The more you try to reject these thoughts, the stronger they'll come back. It's a paradox. I have had upsetting negative thoughts too but at the end of the day they are just fears. Maybe you've always followed the rules and fear that somehow you'll "snap" and rebel against society. They're just thoughts, just fears, they probably don't mean anything by themselves, they just represent a stage of anxiety that you're going through.

There are plenty of books about dealing with OCD-style thoughts but if you're in therapy you should discuss this with your therapist.

[craigj1303]

Don't fight them, let them in and drift out again. When you said you have a little laugh with yourself after, I think that's a good thing. The less serious you make it the less impact they have. I actually found what you thought about the nursery nurse and the delivery driver pretty funny to be honest, made me laugh!

[T*]

Ive said one thing out loud before, and thats what worries me more. Yeah more often than not theyre amusing or just completely ramdom, and laughing does help, but I also know that others wont find it so funny. It seems my brain just conjures up the worst possible thing I could say at that moment of time, and mocks me by making me want to say really poor tasteless joke (see above) ha.

[Rennie1989]

http://positive-mental-health.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/intrusive-thoughts.html

That's my blog on intrusive thoughts, may be able to offer some insight.

[harasgenster]

Don't fight them. You feel like you're exerting alot of effort into controlling yourself to keep the intrusive thoughts just thoughts, but actually they were always just thoughts. If you didn't try so hard to control yourself, you wouldn't lose control. You've been in control all along.

Everytime you exert control on yourself to 'try' not to think the thoughts, or 'try' not to follow through on them, you're telling yourself they're dangerous. But they're not dangerous, you're not going to follow through on them, and it's perfectly safe for them to be there.

Try to just observe them and think 'oh, there's that thought again'. Don't react to it emotionally like you have been, look at it with curiosity instead: 'Oh look, I'm having that silly thought again'. That takes the power right out of it.