If You Could Give Just One Suggestion, What

[efes]

But there's also the mental energy aspect. 

[lostinme]

10 minutes ago, efes said:

I dunno myself what the right thing to do is, I'm not super good at letting my thoughts float through and I could only do it when I have the mental energy for it, which is pretty rare. 

Oh bless you, we are all in the same boat so any insight that might be helpful is always a good thing. There is no saying what I’m doing is the right way? But to me I’ve started to accept that all thoughts come from our brains whether it be Im going to win the lottery tomorrow, I’m not sure what I want for dinner tonight or what did I have for tea last night etc or I’ve just put something in my drink? They are all thoughts it’s just how we percieve those thoughts and what we do with them that’s important 

[Isthisreality]

26 minutes ago, efes said:

But there's also the mental energy aspect. 

Well it is up to you. 

If you want to make a case of how you cant do this and that because of this and that. Sure you can go so for a while

Edited March 21, 2018 by Isthisreality

[gingerbreadgirl]

4 hours ago, taurean said:

 once you accept that the intrusive unpleasant thoughts stem from an OCD source, you don't need to give them any attention

I have done this in the past, I've successfully broken the obsessive/compulsive cycle by "not going there" and it's worked, for long periods of time.

But if that obsession is built on faulty cognitive patterns, then breaking the cycle isn't enough, long term, in my opinion.  I walked the walk for a long time but it's come back to  bite me really hard and that, I'm convinced, is because I never addressed how I was intepreting those thoughts.  I cut off the leaves but not the roots. 

Edited March 21, 2018 by gingerbreadgirl

[lostinme]

3 hours ago, gingerbreadgirl said:

But if that obsession is built on faulty cognitive patterns, then breaking the cycle isn't enough, long term, in my opinion.  I walked the walk for a long time but it's come back to  bite me really hard and that, I'm convinced, is because I never addressed how I was intepreting those thoughts.  I cut off the leaves but not the roots. 

Yes I agree with what you are saying here gbg, when I first started to stop ruminating and not do this compulsion, I would just notice the thought, think I’m not going there and focus my mind onto other things, not giving the thoughts any attention. But then throughout occasionally I would feel compelled to do it, it was at these times I started to learn the cognitive side of things. Eventually after a few setbacks along the way I started to see the pattern and the connections I’d made to all of these thoughts. I no longer feel the need to ruminate about any thoughts that come to mind now because I understand the pointlessness in all of these thoughts and that they don’t serve a purpose to me. So I think you do have to work on the cognitive side of things too, I worked through different aspects that I ruminated about and the different thoughts and thinking behind it. So yes it’s an important part that you need to work through cognitively. To me a lot of the things I worked through was to work on self forgiveness and accepting the doubt of never knowing for sure and learning that it as gone, it’s done with and all the worry in the world won’t change it.