Getting tortured by intrusive thoughts

[nianxiousguy]

These things are really starting to bring me down and frustrated now. They all revolve around things I love, mostly hurting myself because I love life, I don't feel depressed and have no intention of doing anything which is probably why they are revolving around this. I do feel scared and low because of these thoughts though. For example

"What if this gets worse and you end up hurting yourself"
"Its almost January, January is depressing, what if you can't handle it"
"You were only distracting yourself over Christmas, you didn't feel good at all"

A real stinker was I looked at my daughter playing lego last night, she was so content and happy and the following popped up
"She is happy now but how will she feel if it gets to much for you, she'll be heartbroken" That thought shook me big time.

But whats worse is these thoughts bring you down, I then got

"If they keep going you might actually get to that point"

Any help guys?

[Kitkat99]

From what I’ve been told the worst thing you can do is react to intrusive thoughts. Every time you react negatively to them, or start thinking about them you’re reinforcing them. You basically tell your brain they’re something to be scared of so it views them as “important” which ends in them becoming more frequent.

Best thing to do is remind yourself they are just thoughts and cannot hurt you. They aren’t the truth just fears.

[Candy6]

I feel like this too. I was fine before Christmas but now I’m telling myself that I was only ok because it was Christmas and was distracted. Now I’m telling myself that now it’s over I’ve got nothing and my life is rubbish. I think like Kitkat said it’s best not to react to them but this is hard. Distraction techniques are good if you can do them. Good luck xx

[Scass]

They are horrible but they are just thoughts. You can argue back you know. Remind yourself that you’ve felt this way before, but you were fine then. Just like giving advice to a friend or your family.

Then go distract yourself and focus on taking some good deep breaths for a minute.

[AntsyVee]

Try writing them down on one side of a T-chart. On the other side of a T-chart, write how each one is irrational. It helps to get them down on paper; they lose some of their effect.