Does anybody ever get an intrusive thought mid conversation that makes it very hard to focus on listening? I normally start focusing on making the thought go away which, of course, makes it worse. What is a better approach?
I find it useful to say "maybe, maybe not" and then distract myself by engaging in the conversation. For example: I get an intrusive thought my house will go up in flames because I forgot to turn off the stove. Maybe I forgot, maybe I didn't. We'll see what happens. I typically forget about the thought shortly after.
I can relate . Over the years what you mentioned would happen to me often . I would try to resolve the thought while I was having the conversation with the other person.
Yes! Sometimes when I’m having a conversation I feel trapped with my thoughts in my head if I’m not the one talking. I’ve been trying to be more present with the person and the conversation. Also I can be in the middle of a sentence and a thought pops up & I end up taking a big pause to calm myself down from the thought. People probably think I’m losing my train of thought but I’m actually distracted in my head. Hoping to find a way to break this habit & not focus on “thought stopping”
I also find it useful to respond to it and try to refocus on what I was doing. When it happens during a convo, I usually go with something like "whatever OCD, shut it, I'm busy right now and want to hear this" Or a slightly different version if I'm in the middle of doing something. There are some thoughts that still stop me and I struggle with the non-engagement responses, but the more we practice doing that with the less scary thoughts, the better we get at doing it with the scarier ones. Over time it gets easier to interrupt the response AND I do the same thing when I notice I'm ruminating... except I'm nicer to myself than I am to OCD. To myself, I try something more lighthearted such as "Oops, that's rumination. I don't need to figure that out/fix that/investigate/measure... I'm doing something else now" (whatever applies to the nature of your rumination)
I’m having constant intrusive thoughts and it’s driving me crazy. I will go through these periods where everything I do I get an intrusive thought and it’s just my brain is so loud. Anyone else?! How do you stop the constant intrusive thoughts when you can’t really do an exposure for every single one?!
How do get rid of intrusive thoughts?? And how do you know that they’re intrusive thoughts if you started thinking of them? Or if you feel like you’re the one who’s thinking of them rather than them just popping in your mind? Like if you’re looking for it, like you’re looking for trouble… Anyone else feel like this too?
Can intrusive thoughts make you feel crazy? What are yours like I need help mine are so bad . They pop up random when im talking to someone while someone's talking ..... it feels like they are getting worse by the minute .
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