how do you not dwell on a thought like this?

[Chris2000]

Ok so last week I felt pretty normal not many worries felt ok. As the weekend began I felt a bit down bit sad, I felt tired all weekend. Then at work today I felt I was improving only to be hit with a thought from knowhere that scared the hell out of me-I WANT TO DIE! No I don't but where the hell does a thought like that come from? I can't stop thinking about it now it upset me a lot to have a thought like that. Anyone had anthing like this?

[whatisthis]

Accept that it is just a thought and its the anxiety producing the thought. I had alot of these thoughts and after just going with them for a bit, as in not reacting or worrying about them they passed.

[johnno]

once you recognise your dwelling you stop dwelling.

if you cant stop yourself from dwelling why keeping trying to stop yourself from dwelling ?

[Chris2000]

I've learnt so much anxiety over the pasr couple of years its just this is my worst fear and I struggle to let it go sometimes it really pees me off just pops up whenever it feels like it and I'm too sensitive to ignore such a hideous scary thought. But I do understand all you say.

[Bill]

this is my worst fear

And it's our worst fears that create our most frightening intrusive thoughts.

You'll also probably find that when you're feeling most stressed, these will be the times that these thoughts will surface most often. When you're feeling relaxed, intrusive thoughts tend not to trouble us as much.

My feeling is that when we're feeling stressed, we feel most trapped which then makes us feel afraid so our subconscious mind then creates an image or words connected to our worst fears.

In a way, I reckon it's like nightmares. If you've had a very stressful day and go to bed feeling anxious, I reckon you're much more likely to have nightmares such as the nightmares where you're feeling chased but your legs won't move. This is the subconscious mind translating your feeling of being trapped by your stress into images created by the feeling of needing to escape.

I think if you analyse dreams, they're all created by issues going on in our lives so that what we see and hear each day are then used by the mind in the form of dreams to process issues that are troubling us, even if at face value the dream doesn't appear to make any sense.

Intrusive thoughts are just the same. Created by stress and our worst fears producing a mini nightmare while we're awake, and just like a nightmare while we're asleep, they're just thoughts created by a fear and nothing more than that.:)

[johnno]

if you relied on your dreams to find the source of your problems youd be on forever .

chris then let it be your worst fear ? what happens if you feel this horrendous fear ?
you could be lay on your bed for hours and hours feeling the worst feelings you can imagine but they only temporary . and once you realise that they dont hold any importance they lose there power .

the fighting the intrusive thoughts from coming will intensify them because you creating a conflict between you and the thoughts. this is just a struggle . i heard someone say a while back that if you try to win the battle against your mind youll be battling forever .

why cant you allow these thoughts to come through ? they only thoughts . at first they will trick you into believing them but then just be aware of yourself believing them . the thoughts are not who we are . we are the awareness of the thoughts .

and when you say you cant ignore it dont ignore it because if your trying to ignore it again your struggling straight away . just let attention go where it wants to .