Joewest439 Posted August 13, 2017 Share Posted August 13, 2017 (edited) I find it very hard to distinguish between what is the acceptance of intrusive thoughts, and what is ruminating. I mean, the advice I get generally suggests the we should accept, not avoid intrusive thoughts, but isn't this very close to deliberately dwelling on them and pressing for further thoughts? Aka ruminating? On the flip side, isn't the act of not dwelling on them a form of avoidance, which we apparently shouldn't be doing? I feel like the margin between how we should manage intrusive thoughts and how we shouldn't is very fine. Like they're one and the same. It's confusing me. Edited August 13, 2017 by Joewest439 None Link to comment
PolarBear Posted August 13, 2017 Share Posted August 13, 2017 The funny thing is, your questions above are almost certainly the result of ruminating. Accepting intrusive thoughts does not mean you have to believe they are true. It is simply allowing the thoughts into your head without any kind of reaction from you. It's like being near a screaming child: you can just stand there and not do anything about it. (Hard to do but it can be done). Ruminating is actively thinking about intrusive thoughts. It's looking at them, taking them apart, trying to figure out what they mean, analyzing them, looking at them from different angles, etc. Accepting is passive. Ruminating is active. No, not dwelling on them is not avoidance. Dwelling on thoughts is the same as ruminating and it's a compulsion. It's an active measure meant to diminish the anxiety caused by obsessions. Avoidance is a compulsion where, for instance, someone avoids objects or places because intrusive thoughts have told a sufferer that they are contaminated. Now that I've said all that, you might feel satisfied temporarily but chances are your brain will come up with more intrusive thoughts that will muddy the waters again. So then you have to let it go. Stop looking for the answer. Otherwise you'll just go round and round and not get anywhere. Link to comment
Angst Posted August 13, 2017 Share Posted August 13, 2017 I have read posts where people cite the number of thoughts that we have in a day. I don't know the figure, but suspect that it is a high figure. The vast majority of them just come and go we do not brood about them. By my understanding, an intrusive thought is an unwanted negative thought which does not go but remains and festers. I suspect that people mean that you treat an intrusive thought as a 'ordinary' thought and simply allow it to flow away, as we do with the vast majority of thoughts that we have in a day. Link to comment
Joewest439 Posted August 14, 2017 Author Share Posted August 14, 2017 Thank you both, it makes more sense to me now. I should have been a little more specific in my question too. I have consistently let obsessions great and small go, in recent times. When I am distanced from them, it's a lot easier for me to feel unmoved by them when they reoccur to me now. However, when they do pop up here and there, I feel a great fear, like I must change the thought pattern immediately, lest I become reattached to the obsession. Like it's very sensitive material that plagued me for so long, so I dare not think about it. Now, is this avoidance of past obsessions making them recur more? I feel doing the opposite and letting the thoughts just be there is bound to result in me getting reattached again. Link to comment
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