where does the irrationality come from?!

[hangingbasket]

My current fear, the deadly disease I am focusing on at the moment and think it's possible that I may have... I have just looked up the actual incidence rates and in a whole year, for my age group.. there were only 12 cases in the UK! 12!!!!!

So WHY am I thinking I have this rather than one of the illnesses where there are 1000's of cases every year?!

I dont even have any of the risk factors!

Bloody hell!!!!!!!

[Fishmanpa]

You need a device that delivers an electric shock every time an irrational thought comes into your mind. That would cure you REAL FAST! ~lol~

Positive thoughts

[saab]

It comes from cognitive distortion - something happens and it colours your thinking from then on.

Filtering - we get good news from the doc, but don't hear that bit, we only focus on the slight negative thing he/she says.
Overgeneralisation - if something bad happens we expect it to happen again.
Emotional Reasoning - because we feel something, we think it must be true. I feel terrible, anxious, frightened - so I must be ill.

If you google cognitive distortion, there are lists of them and I am prone to them all at times. In particular I am prone to catastrophising - I expect the worse possible outcome to everything, whether it is a lost parking ticket or my heart issues.

Thete is a phrase about thoughts which helps me - "Real, but not true". A thought in our head is a real thing, it is there, it exists. But it may not be true.

We get good at what we practise. Going over negative stuff in our head makes it harder to break the cycle of cognitive errors. It frustrates me that I am a logical person, but when my palpitations start my logic goes out of the window.

Stop Thinking Start Living by Richard Carlson is a good book on overcoming illogical thoughts, so is the Claire Weekes 'floating' method.

[WhyWhyWhy]

'Emotional Reasoning - because we feel something, we think it must be true. I feel terrible, anxious, frightened - so I must be ill'

I've never heard of this before yet it makes so much sense. I see the worry as a sign that I've been sent to warn me I have a particular illness. That's shed some light and I think is very appropriate to the question x