How To Manage Obsessive Thoughts: 7 Practical Tips
Obsessive thoughts, also known as negative automatic thoughts (PAN), are common in anxiety disorders and major depression, although they also occur in people without emotional problems.
They involve an enormous investment of cognitive effort and can generate a physiological response similar to what would be observed if the feared event were actually happening.
Most people who report experiencing them attribute to them the ability to persist despite the deliberate effort to eliminate them, which generates hopelessness and increases their concern even more.
In this article we will offer several tips on how to manage obsessive thoughts all of them based on current scientific knowledge.
An obsessive thought is a mental content that is presented in the form of words or images, whose nature is threatening and that access the mind automatically and unwantedly It can take the form of worry about a future event or re-experiencing an event located in the past, which is accompanied by very difficult emotions whose intensity can exhaust emotional resources.
Threatening content often implies a physiological fear response, with the difference that the stimulus that provokes it is not really present, but wanders somewhere between the future and the past. The sympathetic nervous system (one of the branches that make up the autonomic nervous system) interprets the situation in a way analogous to direct experience, activating all the resources to fight or flee (anxiety).
How to manage obsessive thoughts
There is data that demonstrates the existence of strategies to manage obsessive thoughts appropriately, which we proceed to describe in the following lines.
1. Worry about a problem that is really solvable
Problems, in general, are divided into two large groups: those that can be solved and those that cannot be solved Each of them requires a different approach, otherwise our efforts may be fruitless or counterproductive. The first step we should take is to analyze the possible cause of our obsessive thoughts, since they may be associated with an objective situation that can be modified in its very essence.
It is not uncommon for people, when they are overwhelmed by a series of stressful situations or by a particularly difficult specific event, to tend to postpone the problem or consider that avoiding it will end up bringing with it the desired solution. Scientific evidence tells us that, In the face of modifiable circumstances, assuming a passive attitude is related to worse consequences on emotional health in the medium and long term.
To avoid this circumstance, there are specific procedures designed to solve problems, such as the one proposed by Nezu and D’Zurilla. It consists of five well-defined steps, in sequence: description of the problem (writing it in a simple and operational way), generation of alternatives (numerous, varied and delaying the judgment), exploration of the viability of the different alternatives (considering the positive consequences or negative ones that may occur in the medium or long term) and implementation of the best of all possible solutions.
This model, known as Decision Making Training (DTE), has been the subject of numerous investigations with the purpose of verifying its effectiveness in very diverse contexts and problems, demonstrating its potential as a therapeutic tool.
2. Time out and distraction
A procedure that is useful to many people is known as “time out.” Since obsessive thoughts can persist for many hours each day, it is possible that those who suffer from them end up immersed in them most of the time. The procedure we are talking about has the purpose of Establish in advance a specific time of day when these types of thoughts will be authorized limiting it in the rest.
This procedure has the advantage that the person does not try to eliminate their negative thoughts, but rather reserves a space for them to exist in, and dedicates the rest of the time to productive activities. It does not, therefore, imply a form of experiential avoidance; but simply a different management of its resources. Evidence indicates that encapsulating worry reduces the intensity of thoughts through an underlying process of satiation and an increase in the subjective sense of control.
3. Stopping thought
Thought stopping techniques do not have sufficient evidence, so this advice is aimed at questioning their usefulness. Currently we know that When the person fights against a thought because he considers it inappropriate, a paradoxical effect occurs: this increases not only quantitatively, but also qualitatively (intensity and frequency). And trying not to think about something is enough for it to knock insistently at the doors of our brain.
When a thought comes to mind, the brain cannot identify whether we want to avoid it or remember it. It simply activates a synapse pattern that evokes sensations and emotions directly related to it, making its availability to consciousness increase.
Some procedures, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, highlight the capacity of this experiential avoidance to contribute to the development and maintenance of emotional problems.
4. Mindfulness
Mindfulness is not a relaxation exercise, but a meditative practice It comes from Buddhist monastic traditions, although it has been stripped of its religious nuances to be used as a therapeutic procedure that focuses on the active maintenance of an attentive consciousness. This form of attention allows us to focus on the present moment, avoiding judgment about the facts and the tendency to wander between the past and the future.
There are many studies that, using functional and structural neuroimaging techniques, detect subtle changes in the structure and function of the brain as a result of the continued practice of Mindfulness. The areas on which an effect is appreciated are related to functions such as the processing of emotional experience and the regulation of the flow of thoughts, thereby facilitating a “witness mind” over the internal experience.
Today there are numerous techniques based on Mindfulness, many of which can be put into practice in a multitude of real-life situations (from eating to walking). In the case of suffering from anxiety, it may be necessary to consult a specialist before practicing it, since directing attention towards certain bodily processes (such as breathing) can accentuate the symptoms when they are interpreted in a catastrophic way.
This last detail extends to diaphragmatic breathing and progressive muscle relaxation, which involves the coordinated tension and distension of large muscle groups in a logical sequence (always accompanied by inspiration and expiration). There is numerous evidence regarding its favorable action on the physiological and cognitive components of anxiety, but it may also require prior consultation with a mental health specialist.
5. Breaking dynamics
The presence of obsessive thoughts tends to divert attention towards one’s own mental processes, causing us to avoid excessively those things that surround us. This self-absorption tends to be resolved, occasionally, by modifying the activity in which we are immersed.
It is possible that something as simple as changing rooms, or embarking on a walk through an unfamiliar area, reorients attentional processes towards the outside.
6. Exhibition
Many negative and repetitive thoughts are associated with the fear of events that could take place in the future, but rarely do. This phenomenon is common in Generalized Anxiety Disorder, where worry gains greater notoriety because it is considered an effective coping strategy (a kind of mechanism to reduce the risk of your fears manifesting). It is also common in some phobias, such as agoraphobia and social phobia.
There is evidence that the best approach to fears, which are often the root from which many automatic negative thoughts spread, lies in exposure techniques. These can be very varied, from that which involves direct contact with what is feared (in vivo) to that which makes use of the imagination to make possible a series of successive approaches to the phobic stimulus, and there are even procedures using virtual reality techniques.
While is true that When we avoid what we fear we feel immediate relief, this effect harbors the trap of perpetuating the emotion and even accentuate it on subsequent occasions in which we may encounter the feared situation or stimulus again. Facing the monster that we have created with our hands, from perpetual flight, can cause some anxiety; But each firm step stands as an achievement that gives us better self-efficacy and fuels our options for success.
Obsessive thoughts are often given enormous credibility. There are people who even feel tremendously unhappy due to the isolated fact of having experienced them, which, together with the loss of control that they generate, only aggravates their feelings of anguish and helplessness. The truth is Mental contents of this nature do not pose any danger to the person who experiences them and that there are also effective ways to address them.
Catastrophization (belief that the occurrence of an event would be impossible to tolerate), polarization (expression of thoughts in absolute and dichotomous terms) or “shoulds” (imposition of necessity on what is really a desire); They constitute common cognitive distortions in many people, since they are established as heuristics through which we interpret reality when it exceeds the cognitive resources available to our species.
There are four criteria from which we can assess whether a thought is irrational, namely: it lacks objective foundations (we do not have evidence to prove its veracity), it generates overwhelming emotions, it is useless in adaptive terms and It is constructed with lapidary or absolutist terms In all these cases there are specific cognitive restructuring techniques that have proven to be effective in the hands of a good therapist.
When to seek help from a professional
Some obsessive thoughts occur in the context of major mental disorders, such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder. In these cases the person is overwhelmed by thoughts over which they lack control, which are relieved by putting into practice a compulsion (counting, washing hands, etc.). The connection between obsession and compulsion tends to be clearly illogical and, although the person recognizes it as such, they have enormous difficulty breaking it.
Thoughts of this nature may also exist in cases of major depression (especially focused on past events or a very pronounced pessimism about the future), as well as post-traumatic stress disorder or generalized anxiety disorder. These assumptions must be evaluated by a mental health professional, so you should not hesitate to consult with one if you suspect that you could be suffering from any of them.
