2 Ticks for Stopping OCD Intrusive Thoughts in Their Tracks

If you suffer from OCD intrusive thoughts are probably something you’re familiar with.  These can range from worries about your health to completely silly things that may make no logical sense at all and anything in between.  Here I want to share a little trick you can use to eliminate intrusive thinking.

OCD Intrusive Thoughts + Emotion = Big Problems

Thoughts happen all the time, but we only end up “getting stuck” on the ones that hold some emotional impact on us.  We might start to worry about them or obsess over them.

Emotion is like glue when it comes to thoughts.  The more emotionally charged the thought is, the more likely your mind is to gravitate and fixate on it.  Think about it for a minute.  Are you more likely to obsess over a boring and mundane task at work or one of your closet friends telling you that they are in love with you?  Probably the second one.

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OCD Intrusive Thoughts – Breaking Their Hold Over Us

What can you do about these thoughts?  Well, first, you should stop trying to “fight” the thoughts.  By struggling to keep a thought out of your mind, you are just giving it more power.  When you push a thought away, you can’t help but think of it.  For example, don’t think of the color blue.  You can’t help but think about it.

When you give up trying to stop the thought, you can get rid of much of the power that they hold over you.  Simply let the thought run through your mind, welcoming it, and before you know it, it will have passed.

OCD Intrusive Thoughts – Unwinding the Anxious Cycle

Another great way to stop obsessive thoughts, is to add positive or humorous qualities to the worrying thought.  For example, if you are concerned that your boss at work might say something critical of you, imagine that you have a special remote control for your boss.

Press the fast forward button on the control and watch your boss moving through his day twice as fast as normal.  You can hear his high-pitched rapid voice as he complains about this and that.  You might actually think this is pretty funny and it could make you laugh or at least feel better.

Now rewind and do it again.  This time, make your boss’ nose twice as big making him look even sillier than before.  Continue making the anxious thought more and more absurd until you find that you completely stop worrying about it at all.

What you’re doing is essentially scratching the record that’s been playing over and over again in your mind.  Eventually if you scratch it so much, you won’t be able to play it anymore and you can just let the thought go.

These are two great ways to stop OCD, intrusive thoughts, and anxious worries in their tracks.  Keep these in mind and start practicing them.  It may seem strange at first, but after you use these tricks a few times, you’ll start to feel better and gain more control over your thinking.

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