Personal Development for Smart People Forums - View Single Post - How to Counter Bizarre/Obsessive Thinking

dominick · 03-02-2009, 08:49 PM

I've overcome some anxiety and depressive states in my past and learned a lot of lessons that have caused me to be a stronger human being. However, lately I've dealing with some stuff that I haven't quite been able to figure out. The challenge mostly stems from bizarre or obsessive thinking that I have. The thoughts will often be of a sexual or violent nature. They aren't things that I would ever act on and I don't have any desire to do so but when I have the thoughts I get scared for my mental stability and start worrying about whether these thoughts will end up harming my future.

Knowing the importance of our thought life I want to rid myself of these thought patterns. However, I'm not quite sure of the best way. On one hand, if I try to resist the thoughts (by doing an affirmation, etc) then I feel like the obsessive nature of them actually make them worse. Simply moving to something that demands my full attention helps but doesn't seem to solve the underlying problems. Meditation is definitely helpful in terms of calming the mind but doesn't seem to be a cure-all either.

I've read a few things that suggest that bizarre or obsessive thinking is just a way of dealing with anxiety and I feel that might be the case. While I don't have extreme anxiety I do feel that I probably have some sort of low-grade anxiety that is largely there most of the time. Does anyone have any ideas here that might help?

03-02-2009, 08:49 PM	#1 (permalink)
dominick Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Posts: 69	How to Counter Bizarre/Obsessive Thinking I've overcome some anxiety and depressive states in my past and learned a lot of lessons that have caused me to be a stronger human being. However, lately I've dealing with some stuff that I haven't quite been able to figure out. The challenge mostly stems from bizarre or obsessive thinking that I have. The thoughts will often be of a sexual or violent nature. They aren't things that I would ever act on and I don't have any desire to do so but when I have the thoughts I get scared for my mental stability and start worrying about whether these thoughts will end up harming my future. Knowing the importance of our thought life I want to rid myself of these thought patterns. However, I'm not quite sure of the best way. On one hand, if I try to resist the thoughts (by doing an affirmation, etc) then I feel like the obsessive nature of them actually make them worse. Simply moving to something that demands my full attention helps but doesn't seem to solve the underlying problems. Meditation is definitely helpful in terms of calming the mind but doesn't seem to be a cure-all either. I've read a few things that suggest that bizarre or obsessive thinking is just a way of dealing with anxiety and I feel that might be the case. While I don't have extreme anxiety I do feel that I probably have some sort of low-grade anxiety that is largely there most of the time. Does anyone have any ideas here that might help?