How To Deal With Obsessive Thoughts
Having obsessive thoughts is a common thing. As human beings, we are constantly thinking creatures. Therefore, we must accept that we tend to harbor a multitude of random thoughts. The problem arises when these thoughts become obsessive and limit our daily functioning. If you are concerned about this, learn from the following lines how to deal with obsessive thoughts.
How to deal with obsessive thoughts
Instead, other people identify with their thoughts. Often, these people are obsessed with perfectionism and responsibility. Therefore, they end up thinking obsessively about certain things and relate to their own thoughts as if they were in real situations. However, thoughts are often creations of their minds and have nothing to do with reality.
One of the most common methods of treatment for obsessive thoughts is to learn to deal with them successfully. Logically, you will need to learn new ways of approaching, interacting and relating to your thoughts. The ultimate goal is not to let your thoughts control your life.
To think or not to think? This is the question
Obsessive thoughts can become extremely annoying. Remember all those times when the summer song stayed in your head and you ended up humming it without wanting to. In fact, the more you try to ignore these obsessive elements, the more often they come back to you.
In the case of obsessive thoughts, the same thing happens. The idea of ”not thinking” has an ironic rebound effect, and the thought becomes stronger and stronger. Therefore, the key is to learn to live with your thoughts, looking at them as if you were a spectator of the mental processes in your brain.
But this exercise is not easy. We have already established that obsessions are very uncomfortable. The natural thing we do is try to get them out of our heads to get rid of anxiety. This is where compulsions come into play: almost unconscious actions that neutralize the discomfort and cause the obsession.
In the short term, it may seem to work. But in the long run, the “solution” becomes the real problem. We become addicted to these compulsions and use them to eliminate obsessions, which are therefore consolidated.
Strategies to deal with obsessive thoughts
Cognitive diffusion of mental events means knowing how to separate thoughts from reality and from you as a person. It is necessary to recognize that you are not your thoughts: you are much more than your thoughts. It is also necessary to realize that having thoughts does not mean that they are realities.
It is much more useful to treat thoughts as entities that you do not like and that you let pass. You can even ignore them to a certain extent until they start to decrease in intensity.
We all have thoughts that we are ashamed to acknowledge or say out loud. However, this does not mean that they are important or that they define us in any way. Therefore, a good way to deal with obsessive thoughts is to reduce the amount of importance we place on them.
