fear ridden

[elik]

what to do when you have horrible disturbing thoughts that fuel anxiety and cause self hate, encouraging the vicious cycle? I feel so out of touch with reality and lost in my negative thoughts and drowning :(

[Jo1970]

Difficult...very difficult. This sounds stupid but try to do some deep breathing and distract yourself. Get some meds to calm you....ok in the short term. I know benzos are addictive in the medium term but believe they are totally underused in th UK. Other meds which help me are quitapine....wrong spelling. In box me if you want to chat.x

[Oosh]

They're just thoughts, suggestions. Give them no meaning. Your minds always rabbiting away, let it. You don't have to tune in to every last thought and let it affect your mood negatively. Definitely don't be believing them just because you thought them. They're not truths they're suggestions.

Recognise them.
"Oh a suggestion trying to scare me"
"Oh a suggestion trying to steal all my confidence"
"They're a mischievous and useless distraction. I'm going to look over here instead"

If you can be BOTHERED wasting time on them then disagree with them. You can change your mood in an instant by changing the way you see things. It's important to strengthen those muscles and become good at self soothing and finding a positive perspective. These things are tools, new habits. They're the things that handle your thoughts for you on a daily basis. They become automatic. Without them you have no other option but to slide or become trapped.

Anxious thinking is like a trap. You think about it and explore it but you're "on topic". You're thinking about anxieties, fears and self esteem sapping scenarios = that mood, obviously.

FORGET the tedious, good-mood sapping nonsense for a minute, an hour, a week, 6 months. You're creating a new habit where you're no longer trapped and now spend most of your time outside of anxious thinking. Now it just tries to pop in there every few days. And when it does your tools take care of them for you. You look away as soon as possible and forget again.

Don't get overwhelmed !

What do you enjoy ?
What makes you laugh ?
You got any plans for the weekend ?
What are you looking forward to ?
What are your plans for the future ?
Who do you want to be ?

You don't have to answer those lol
Get into the habit of getting your mind in a different place.
Leave that tedious nonsense behind.

If you can identify real world problems you can set aside some time to write through those and see if you can come up with solutions.
Jobs
Types of people in your life
Etc
You'll feel really good if you can solve these things so you don't have to wake up to them every day. You'll create a happier place for you to be.