my intrusive thought gone and back again

[Audi]

Recently i posted a thread regards to my anxiety thoughts , thanks for all the reply and advise. that particular thoughts has slowly faded away as mention but a new kind of intrusive thoughts came into my mind.

i am a luxury watch lover...its my hobby ... but one day i accidentally hit my watch against my wife teeth as i wasn't on purpose its just purely an accident. of cause my first reaction is to ask my wife is she ok. she replied ok. just a few seconds later an intrusive thought came in my mind, was my watch damaged...was my watch scratch....??? i did a check and found that my watch was in good condition was not seen any defect for the impact at all...... but the intrusive thought keep telling my mind that my watch was damaged in a way which my eyes didnt managed to see clearly... i keep did check on it....seems to be obssessioin.... but the obssession did not last long and bother me much.... the only thing which bothers me much is the thought of that keep on telling me that the watch is damaged ........... i was think to change to another watch but i love this watch so much...... i dont feel like changing ...but i just cant stand the intrusive thought in my mind. whenever i change my watch mainly is because of my thoughts.......... telling me its scratches...its out of shape..... its small for me..... its...etc etc..... i somehow managed to control this thoughts for sometimes and its came back again

while thinking of changing to other model of the watch... i keep on having running thoughts of some of the watch models name is meaning something bad..... for examples... sea dweller ... the dweller makes me thinks of spirts( ghost) dwelling around . and for sunburst i keep on thinking that sunburst mean end of the world... i feel like i m going crazy........ how to stop all this running thought??????????



i have fren with ocd.... they cant stand single scratch on the thing they loved.... one of my fren who suffered from ocd tolds me that he had to change his phone every 3 months as he cannot stand the scratch on his phone... please advise.... i have been changing for a few watch for the same model for the past 1 years.... but for this time i really dont feel like changing anymore... please advise how to stop this thoughts and carry on my life.......

[MyNameIsTerry]

The thoughts about watch models meaning something bad is known as Magical Thinking. I've had this as one of my forms and it combined with my harm based thoughts. It's also a bit of the perfectionist issue with yours because you need the watch to be "perfect" and this is flaw, like a contamination.

Acceptance is critical one here. Accepting that things aren't perfect but thats OK. We want it to look like it does when it comes out of the box and that scratch or dent makes us feel bad or niggles at us because it is no longer perfect but we need to accept it's still the same watch and like us human beings, scars & dents come along. Replacing it will be a compulsion so it's not to act on it and work on accepting these thoughts on this basis, that it is ok to feel let down by something being less than perfect and by recognising that it can still be very good.

Try to stop checking it too because you are then performing another compulsion and it will keep the cycle going.

Try to reduce stress and overall anxiety levels in your life because it will reduce the intensity and frequency on intrusive thoughts. If you are experiencing your intrusive thoughts jumping from theme to theme, it could be because you are quite stressed at the moment.

Practice meditation too. Mindfulness. This will help to calm your mind, retrain you to control your thoughts better, still your mind and help you with acceptance. This will help you will all forms of anxiety so it's worth it.

[Audi]

thanks terry for the reply..... i will tell myself its ok with scar.... but the worst part is that... i cant see any defect with my bare eyes... but my mind keep telling me this "its hit........definately have defect just that i cant tell from my eyes'' i just want to get this feeling out of my mind ......

[MyNameIsTerry]

That's where it's a bit like a contamination issue, its just we normally associate that with germs or bacteria. There is nothing to see but you believe it is contaminated in some way which in this case is the possibility of damage.

What is the worst that can happen? That it stops working so you have it repaired (which means it still isn't perfect anymore) or you replace it. Rationalise it like this and tell yourself that it is working and until you see real evidence of it not working, it is ok. You like your watch and you don't want to replace it so tell yourself it is what you want and these thoughts are just thoughts, nothing more and cannot magically know that something is wrong when everything you can see & hear is telling you everything is ok.