changing the way you think - please help!

Anonymous

calmed the thoughts down? really? so you'd just write no everytime you thought it? and then what, try and focus on thinking something else instead?

I'd write a huge marker pen ridden NO on my hands.

When i'd pull my hair i'd always look at my fingers to see if i had unintentionally pulled any hair out. Then i'd see NO on my hand. It works, as next time I went to do it, i'd think No.

I've never been able to not bite my fingers though. Rarely do anymore, but throughout my school life, i'd have a manky finger or two. Come summer holidays, i'd be happy and forget to bite them, so i'd be well proud when I came back with fingers that didn't sting. I used to put plasters on ever finger. Goddamn OCD.

In hindsight, man I have just realised I was a wierd kid.

Reply 21

g2da3

11

Holly-AT

Aaah I've only just realised your avatar is a piss take of Tom from Myspace!

haha whey. Tom's sexy.

hahah you really think hes sexc hahaha u Joker :smile:

the avater very small for some reason do you know how to make it bigger ?

Reply 22

poltroon

Marie05

if you want to get rid of negative/irrational thoughts that have become a habit,.. wear a rubber band around your wrist and every time your 'habit' kicks in, pull the rubber band and let go. Soon your brain will associate physical pain with the negative thoughts and you will get rid of that undesirable habit. I havent tried it myself but apparently it works! :smile:

good luck x

Any half-decent therapist would strongly disapprove. Thought suppression, that is actively trying to get rid of thoughts, has been proven to exacerbate anxious thoughts. The most effective way to tackle negative or anxiety provoking thoughts is to change your attitude towards your thoughts, and see them in a new, more reasonable, light. Thought challenging you might call it, it's about changing underlying negative beliefs about yourself. Get a self-help book about cognitive therapy, or go and see a counsellor, they can be a real help.

Reply 23

Marie05

1

poltroon

Any half-decent therapist would strongly disapprove. Thought suppression, that is actively trying to get rid of thoughts, has been proven to exacerbate anxious thoughts. The most effective way to tackle negative or anxiety provoking thoughts is to change your attitude towards your thoughts, and see them in a new, more reasonable, light. Thought challenging you might call it, it's about changing underlying negative beliefs about yourself. Get a self-help book about cognitive therapy, or go and see a counsellor, they can be a real help.

hmm a quick google search gives me these results:

http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/17926/1180/3
"We first have to stop our racing thoughts, or what Edmund Bourne calls negative self talk in The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook. I mentioned before that the thoughts come automatically in some cases, so how then do we stop them? Like any bad habit you want to break, it takes a little concentration. You have to make yourself notice when you’re thinking them and then you have to break the thought. One way to break the thought is the rubber band exercise.

Once the irrational thoughts start, you interrupt them by snapping the rubber band on your wrist. The sting will interrupt you from the exaggerated negative thought and you tell yourself to stop. Use whatever words you like, but order yourself firmly to stop thinking that way. Then you can counter them with a positive thought."

Other sites that mention the same thing..
http://www.anxieties.com/panic-step8b1.php
http://stress.about.com/od/optimismspirituality/a/positiveselftak.htm

Reply 24

poltroon

If I tell you not to think of a white bear, what do you do? Trying to avoid a thought consciously just makes you even more preoccupied by it. It is called the rebound effect; to feel better you have to accept your thoughts, not push them away.

Wegner et al have done important research on the topic of trying to control the involuntary in the thought process.

For a brief discussion see:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thought_suppression

Reply 25

Anonymous #1

OP

Marie05

hmm a quick google search gives me these results:

http://www.suite101.com/lesson.cfm/17926/1180/3
"We first have to stop our racing thoughts, or what Edmund Bourne calls negative self talk in The Anxiety & Phobia Workbook. I mentioned before that the thoughts come automatically in some cases, so how then do we stop them? Like any bad habit you want to break, it takes a little concentration. You have to make yourself notice when you’re thinking them and then you have to break the thought. One way to break the thought is the rubber band exercise.

Once the irrational thoughts start, you interrupt them by snapping the rubber band on your wrist. The sting will interrupt you from the exaggerated negative thought and you tell yourself to stop. Use whatever words you like, but order yourself firmly to stop thinking that way. Then you can counter them with a positive thought."

Other sites that mention the same thing..
http://www.anxieties.com/panic-step8b1.php
http://stress.about.com/od/optimismspirituality/a/positiveselftak.htm

ohh useful stuff :smile:

what word/phrase did you type in when you did that search?

it's also about WILLPOWER like any habit which is hard to conjure up sometimes :biggrin:

changing the way you think - please help!

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you