Intrusive Thoughts (not Just About Trauma)

[ChoctawWarrior]

Hey, y'all...

Does anybody else get those really random scary thoughts where you....

• worry that you'll lose control and do something bad or embarrassing

• remember something embarrassing you did in the past that would've gotten tons of criticism (related to emotional abuse, I'm guessing)

• Etc...?

I get bothered by those thoughts a TON. They cause me great anxiety. Anybody else deal with those? I know they sound like OCD thoughts, but I know they have to be related to the PTSD somehow.

 

[NIKI]

Yes. I hate it. The two you mentioned are big ones for me also.

I do have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder ( OCD) though.

 

[intrasearching]

Indeed, I suffer from myriad intrusive thoughts, such as the ones you describe. I, however, was diagnosed with OCD in addition to PTSD. This is not to say they aren't interrelated; trauma often does precipitate OCD and other anxiety disorders.

 

[ashdawn8287]

Yes, sometimes I get like that. Try refuting your thoughts with positive ones :)

 

[ninja]

Sort of - I often find myself thinking about things that heighten my anxiety because I make a conscious effort to try not to (for me this is exclusively trauma related). Then I'm in a quandary because I end up concerned that thinking about "it" will make "it" happen. I've found that a therapeutic mantra helps during those times: something that quickly grounds me back to/in reality. I'm not sure about the OCD component: it's in my family, for sure though.

 

[holycross1]

I get intrusive thoughts. They are horrific.

They usually include a loved one being hurt. I feel the pain of loss with it sometimes to. I usually just say out loud to my self " You are right here, and now is real. The thoughts are just imagination." I have to repeat it a lot lately.

Yes they are random.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I have obsessive thoughts. I've always said they were the worst symptom for me to deal with as they bring me down faster and harder than anything else. I'm not diagnosed OCD. If OCD obsessions are worse, I know I'd end up dead if I had OCD. Yes, mine are that bad.

Fortunately mine have subsided. One of the symptoms that Neurofeedback helped with.

 

[intrasearching]

@ ScaredofLonely

OCD obsessions are not necessarily "worse." All that is required to be diagnosed OCD is to have some action or ritual to assuage the resultant anxiety. It could even be a pattern of thoughts, such as having a thought you deem "bad" and then saying some prayers immediately to "cleanse" yourself of evil. OCD occurs in varying degrees of intensity, so that mild OCD (as I have) can be constantly anxiety-provoking but not life-haltingly horrific.

I don't know what it's worth to anyone, but obsessions are obsessions. Compulsions are compulsions. If they occur together at any degree, it is OCD. There is also OCPD, of course, which is indeed worse because the intensity has graduated to that of a personality disorder.

Anyway... Glad Neurofeedback helped! I will look into that, as I haven't considered it at all.

 

[JessMar0126]

I get them quite frequently!

 

[I Can Do This]

I have had them too - and they are called automatic thoughts. I had to learn to get them under control because they scared me so much I would cry, and I would isolate and have mood changes because of them. I never understood that I had the power to control them because they felt completely uncontrollable.

What I mean is that I cannot control that thoughts come into my mind - but I learned how to let them go, not attach to them, and when I allow them to be there, they move on quickly. So I am in control of how long they stay in my mind. I learned this through meditation and it has been a very helpful tool for my healing. I heard this phrase that I clung to in the beginning - I am not my thoughts, feelings or bodily sensations. I thought I was - and I think most of us do. So if we are not those things - who are we? We are the one who observes those things.

Finding out who I am was the key to freeing me from all those thoughts.

 

[NIKI]

I know they sound like OCD thoughts, but I know they have to be related to the PTSD somehow.

It is very common for someone with PTSD to have OCD. (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder)

 

[NIKI]

remember something embarrassing you did in the past

I do this and I torture myself over it. I still think about things from the past and still cry about them. I am trying so hard to give myself a break from these memories.