Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts: A CBT-Based Guide to Getting Over Frightening, Obsessive, or Disturbing Thoughts

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The ADAA blogs are forums for individuals to share their opinions, experiences and thoughts related to mental illness. ADAA wants to ensure the integrity of this service and therefore, use of this service is limited to participants who agree to adhere to the following guidelines: Continue whatever you were doing prior to the intrusive thought while allowing the anxiety to be present.

Disturbing thoughts that pop into your mind unbidden may make you feel uneasy, but they are common — and there are strategies you can use to manage them. Healthline has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We avoid using tertiary references. You can learn more about how we ensure our content is accurate and current by reading our editorial policy.Everyone has an inner monologue, a steady stream of thoughts, ideas, images, aspirations and recollections. But sometimes when you’re going about your business — thinking about what’s for dinner or where you put the TV remote — that flow of ideas is interrupted with an unsettling thought or image. While intrusive thoughts may be disturbing, they aren’t harmful or a sign that you have a secret desire to do the things that popped into your mind. Tens of millions of people have bothersome intrusive thoughts, and most often these thoughts are so unacceptable or embarrassing that many people have trouble telling anyone about them—even their closest family members or friends. At worst, these intrusive thoughts are part of severe problems such as OCD, but we know that almost anybody under stress can occasionally experience intrusive thoughts. Now, at last, a state-of-the-art psychological program written by two of the leading clinicians in the country with years of experience treating this problem is available. The program in this remarkable little book may be sufficient to help you overcome your intrusive thoughts, if therapeutic assistance may be needed, to guide you to the best available resources. I recommend this program very highly as a first step for anybody dealing with this issue.” People who are bothered by intrusive thoughts need to learn a new relationship to their thoughts--that sometimes the content of thoughts are irrelevant and unimportant. That everyone has occasional weird, bizarre, socially improper and violent thoughts. Our brains sometimes create junk thoughts, and these thoughts are just part of the flotsam and jetsam of our stream of consciousness. Junk thoughts are meaningless. If you don’t pay attention or get involved with them, they dissipate and get washed away in the flow of consciousness.

Another option is medication. Medications for OCD might include selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) or other antidepressants, such as clomipramine. Although people typically use SSRIs to treat depression, these drugs can also help with OCD symptoms. Antidepressants can take 8–12 weeks to start working.

Video: Reframing unhelpful thoughts

This can make it a great way to cope with intrusive thoughts because you’re not denying that the thoughts are present — just changing your relationship with them. I have also been reading an amazing book which has helped me so much called ‘Overcoming unwanted intrusive thoughts’. It’s a CBT-based guide to getting over frightened, obsessive, or disturbing thoughts. I try and read this book every night. It’s helped me to realise I’m not the only person in the world that has these thoughts and it helps you understand the science behind it.

In OCD, intrusive thoughts cause serious distress. A person with OCD often makes significant efforts to try to suppress or stop their unwanted thoughts (obsessions). This usually involves repeating particular behaviors or habits over and over. If you suffer from unwanted, intrusive, frightening, or even disturbing thoughts, you might worry about what these thoughts mean about you. Thoughts can seem like messages— are they trying to tell you something? But the truth is that they are just thoughts, and don’t necessarily mean anything. Sane and good people have them. If you are someone who is plagued by thoughts you don’t want—thoughts that scare you, or thoughts you can’t tell anyone about—this book may change your life. This book will probably be useful to those whose problem is described in here (I was looking for something about anxious rumination instead). Still a nice book, I think, although one thing that irked me was how the authors focused on the main topic so exclusively that they neglected possibilities that didn't fall under the umbrella of "intrusive thoughts". For example: It’s also possible to have other types of intrusive thoughts that do not fit into these categories.Consider observing your thoughts without judgment, and approaching them with curiosity by turning your attention to how your body responds to certain thoughts that may arise. You don’t need any special equipment to start meditating, just a few spare moments, and somewhere quiet to practice, if possible. I have been in some really dark places. I have days where I have intrusive thoughts I can deal with, and I have days where I really struggle. Three months ago I was in a really dark place to the point I couldn’t go into work and felt like I was losing control. The biggest thought that scared me was that I would seriously harm myself or take my own life. Even though I didn’t want to, I felt like I was out of control and that I was just going to do it and from there it spiralled. I made my chin sore by rubbing it too much from anxiety. All I felt were these dark clouds over my head, that I was in a dark hole that I couldn’t get out of. I cried for the whole day, so scared that no one could help me. My boyfriend had to come home from work and we drove to the countryside for a walk to distract me, which helped a little. Sitting on a bench and feeling the warm sun on my face was like sunshine was breaking down the dark clouds.