How to deal with racing thoughts

Learn more: What’s the difference between ADHD and ADD? »

Obsessive compulsive disorder

Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is a mental health condition in which you experience obsessions or compulsions that are difficult to shake. These obsessions can take the form of racing thoughts, where you can’t stop what feels like an avalanche of thoughts on a particular subject. You may have a compulsion that soothes the thoughts, like washing your hands a certain number of times to stop racing thoughts caused by worrying about germs.

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder is an emotional disorder in which your emotions skyrocket to extreme emotional highs (manias) and plummet to severe depression. Racing thoughts most often occur during the mania part of a bipolar episode, though they can occur with depression, especially in cases of agitated depression.

Agitated depression

Agitated depression is an outdated term which refers to a severe subtype of depression. It’s characterized by feeling agitated instead of lethargic, the symptom that’s commonly associated with most types of depression. You may also feel restless, angry, and quick to react. Racing thoughts is more likely to affect those with agitated depression than other types of depression.

Medication side effect

Sometimes, medications may treat some symptoms of a condition but exacerbate or even cause others. Medications used to treat depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder can sometimes cause agitated depression, which can then trigger racing thoughts.

If you start a new medication and start experiencing racing thoughts, call your doctor so you can try a new medication or adjust the dosage as soon as possible.

Learn more about depression medications and their side effects »

You should call your doctor or make an appointment with your therapist if you’re having racing thoughts on a regular basis and they’ve become disruptive or are preventing you from sleeping. You should make an appointment with a therapist as soon as possible to be evaluated for a mood or mental health disorder if you experience racing thoughts alongside any of the following:

• symptoms of depression
• strong irritability
• strong compulsions
• anxiety or panic attacks
• severe shifts in mood

Read more: 11 ways to stop a panic attack »

Only once you’re diagnosed can treatment start. Just like other types of health conditions, mental health conditions are more easily treated when caught early.

Bad thoughts: how to stop them

Anxiety is an adaptive mechanism. It allows us to adapt to different life circumstances.

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The feeling of anxiety is an adaptive mechanism. It allows us to adapt to different life circumstances. Psychologist Elena Uspenskaya believes that when anxiety causes insomnia and uncontrollable fear, it must be dealt with.

Usually such bad thoughts arise as a reaction to a specific event, during a public speech or communication with strangers. For example, you have an important presentation scheduled. Naturally, you start to worry, thoughts are spinning in your head: “My voice will tremble”, “I will mix up the paragraphs”, “My report will seem stupid and uninteresting to them, but I look ridiculous.” And, as if by magic, your hands really begin to tremble and your voice disappears.

You get confused in words and become silent. Presentation on the verge of failure.

Situational thoughts are temporary and prevent us from solving a specific problem. Therefore, it is easier to deal with them than with other types of disturbing thoughts.

Detach from emotions

In a difficult situation, a process called “dissociation” is launched in the psyche. It works quite often, but at the same time remains unconscious.

The principle of action is very simple: when you find yourself in a stressful situation (deadline, conflict), panic is suddenly replaced by calmness. You feel how you move away from what is happening and as if you are looking at everything from the side. An unexpected lull allows you to make the only right decision.

We may well activate this effective defense mechanism consciously. To do this, it is enough during a speech to shift attention from your own experiences to the behavior and appearance of colleagues or other speakers. Having thus freed yourself from interfering emotions, you begin to think clearly, soberly and constructively. The dissociation technique is indispensable in resolving complex conflict situations, when it is important to keep a "cold head".

View from a different angle

There is a technique in Neuro Linguistic Programming that allows you to find a new vision of a problem by changing its context and, accordingly, its perception. It is called "reframing", which is translated from English as "insert into a new frame."

For example, you are late for work, and you have a very strict manager who meets all subordinates at the elevator, defiantly looking at his watch. You are afraid of the prospect of starting the morning with a severe reprimand. To get rid of fear, imagine a photograph of the boss with the most severe expression on his face. Now put it in a white frame. Describe how you feel about the situation depicted? And what if you make the frame orange and put running lights around the edges? Mentally go through several options and feel how your feelings change. Most likely, the portrait of a strict leader will seem funny to you in a frame with pink hearts, rhinestones and feathers. The exercise will help to change the direction of disturbing thoughts and finally put a broken record on "pause".

Remember why you are here

Much of the bad thinking comes from worrying about how others will judge you. Even at a doctor’s appointment, you think what impression you make on him, whether he will condemn you. And so you lie to present yourself in a more advantageous light. However, it is very important for a doctor to get reliable information from you, otherwise he will not be able to make a correct diagnosis. Maybe that's why, tired of the lies of his patients, Dr. House from the popular series resorts to non-standard methods of searching for the truth (breaks into the patient's apartment, persuades him to undergo diagnostics dangerous to health).

Trust me, your doctor won't judge you for not eating right or smoking too much. He just wants the facts. Ask yourself why you are in this place. Correct Answer: To heal. As soon as you remember the main purpose of the visit, alarm will recede.

Thinking in images

Uncontrollable anxiety can be stopped with the help of imagination. Close your eyes and imagine that you are taking a broom and sweeping all doubts out of your head. Or you write a list of painful thoughts on the board and wipe it off with a rag. Another good trick is to “fill” the head with a viscous liquid like oil, in which thoughts sink without rising. You can imagine that anxiety is autumn leaves: here they are floating on the water, here they are being whirled by the wind. Do not delay any, do not try to answer the questions that arise, do not show emotions - just contemplate. Evil thoughts will float by.

Obsessive fantasies

Recently, there was a joke on the Internet: “What do your parents think when your phone is turned off? You are dying - 49%, you have already died - 49%, your battery has run out - 2%.

A clear example that if people lack information, they present the most tragic scenario. Most often, such thoughts are based on internal fears, fears, anxieties.

Unlike situational fantasies, obsessive fantasies have a more intense negative charge and no longer affect a specific situation, but an entire area of ​​life: for example, relationships with relatives and friends. This type of bad thought is much more difficult to deal with, but still possible.

Here and now

A characteristic feature of fantasies is that they have nothing to do with real facts. We seem to find ourselves in a strange, fictional world. For example, you are worried that you will forget to bring the necessary certificate for obtaining a visa, you will lose your passport... You immediately imagine that you will have to reissue documents, you will not have time to get permission to enter the country, you will not be able to have a good vacation, after two weeks you will go to work tired and dissatisfied. Imagination obligingly offers you pictures, one more terrible than the other.

To get back to reality, do an exercise that will help you feel your body and become aware of the here and now situation. Say: “I am sitting in a comfortable home armchair, the room is warm, I am dressed in comfortable clothes. All the documents for the visa are in that blue folder, I checked them several times. I am planning a vacation in Europe. This is reality. Everything else is fantasy, there is no reason for alarm.”

Find the truth

The biggest mistake you can make is to ignore negative thoughts. After all, they are only signals of deeper psychological processes. They should be treated the way they treat symptoms, for example, of a cold: describe, investigate, understand the cause of the occurrence. A bad thought is like the tip of an iceberg. And in the depths, under water, fear can be hidden, a hidden desire for something.

Find the meaning of the most frequently disturbing symptoms. Think about the message they contain. If you start to worry every time you can't get through to your loved one, ask yourself a few questions. Is everything good in our relationship? Do I feel happy? Are you confident in your partner? For example, behind the fear of losing a loved one, you may be hiding your insecurity, the feeling that there are girls that are better, sexier than you.

Or perhaps your anxiety arises from hidden conflicts in a couple that remain unresolved for a long time. Hence, there is a desire to control a partner, there is anxiety every time he does not answer the call. Instead of driving yourself into a corner with terrible thoughts, talk to your loved one, confess your feelings to him.

Get distracted

In situations that provoke anxious thoughts, use a technique that allows you not to think about the bad. For example, mom is going on a trip, and you are worried that she might be deceived, robbed. After all, she is so simple and naive! To switch your attention, do a simple exercise: copy a sentence from the first book that comes across with your left hand (if you are left-handed, with your right hand), while pronouncing each word aloud.

If you have successfully completed the task, proceed to the next phrase. Write like this for 10-15 minutes, and then stop and check if the thought that tormented you has disappeared. The brain, busy with the performance of an unusual (and therefore difficult) task, cannot produce any thoughts at all. Over time, exercises will not be needed - you will learn to switch automatically.

Total negativity

This is a group of disturbing thoughts that most intensively affect our lives. First of all, personal. They capture completely and for a long time, generalizing a negative idea of ​​themselves and the world around them.

Thoughts like “I am a failure”, “I will always be alone”, “Life is hard and joyless” can be a signal that you are depressed. If this is the case, we recommend that you contact a psychologist who will help you regain a taste for life. The techniques we have proposed, most likely, will not solve the problem, but will help to realize that it exists.

Refute

Admit it, there are few things in the world that cannot be questioned. Once people were convinced that the Earth is flat and rests on three turtles. Most likely, your ideas about yourself can be refuted.

Write down the tormenting thoughts-generalizations on a piece of paper, try to find counterarguments for them. This will help you reconsider your position and go beyond prejudice. For example, if you consider yourself unlucky, formulate the questions: “What is luck? What are its criteria? Even if you can’t find a suitable job for a long time, is it reasonable to get depressed and think that you will never be offered an interesting job? The total belief "I'm a loser" can turn into "Yes, I'm really unlucky right now." And from here a new wording will appear: “There are areas in which I am successful.”

By answering these questions, you will create new judgments about yourself that will no longer be so categorical.

Explore the source of negativity

In most cases, erroneous ideas about yourself are laid in childhood. Once upon a time, they helped to find a common language with parents. For example, my mother said: “You are bad, I don’t love you.” And you tried to earn love by behaving well.

So used to this strategy of behavior that, as an adult, you continue to adhere to it. However, it limits, because each person, depending on the circumstances, can choose different roles. You only show one side of your character. And when people around her don’t accept it, you immediately conclude: “I’m not good enough, I’m bad.”

Try to understand what your false self-image is based on. As soon as you realize at what moment it arose for the first time, many perspectives immediately open before you. You are a versatile person and have the right to show others your “real self”, and not just a fictional “ideal” person that is convenient for others.

Get rid of hidden benefits

Sometimes we can't get rid of negative attitudes because they give certain bonuses. Paradoxically, a person who believes that he is fat or stupid gets the opportunity to feel sorry for himself, blackmail loved ones, causing them a sense of guilt (you are fine!) in order to get more attention. It’s hard to admit it, but such a position allows you to do nothing, go with the flow and remain unhappy.

For example, you are sure that a young man will not like you until you lose weight. You go on a diet, but periodically you “break down”, get upset because of failure and “seize” stress. This is because you intuitively strive to remain the same. Yes, you will be alone. But I'm already used to it. And if a man does appear and you don’t have a relationship (for reasons that have nothing to do with waist size), it will be much more painful.

In this way, the subconscious mind seeks to protect you from more stress. There is only one way out - to find the strength in yourself to admit the reason why you do not want to change. Only then will you be able to start a more complex, but conscious and interesting life.

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7 ways to deal with bad thoughts

Unpleasant thoughts are sometimes worse than the events that caused them - it is extremely difficult to get rid of them. Some people spend several hours a day on them! What can be opposed to bad thoughts?

It turns out that there are a number of methods that will help block the appearance of bad thoughts or cope with them if they have already come. Most of these methods are offered by the American psychologist Danielle Wegner, who has devoted decades of her life to the problem.

1. SWITCH

Don't try not to think of a white monkey - think of a black one. Or better yet, a purple flamingo. Try to switch your mind to some other subject that you also like to think about very much, but which at the same time has positive connotations. Get yourself a few “continued” thoughts that raise more and more questions and the need for answers to them - which means they are drawn into a completely different stream of thoughts. Is it true that Brad Pitt has silicone muscles? I read about it somewhere. But if so, how does he use them? After all, silicone is not able to contract like real muscles - or is there some way to make it do this? And there is also a conspiracy theory according to which our Earth is really flat, and only a cabal of evil scientists has been convincing us for several centuries that it is spherical. Wait, what about satellite images and records from space? And they are falsified by the same scientists. But what about the poles? There is only one pole - the North one, it is in the center of the Earth, which is flat as a disk, and along the edges of the disk there are glaciers that scientists pass off as Antarctica. And so on - soon the seething stream of this nonsense will take you in a completely new direction.

2. AVOID STRESS

Some people find that a strong impression, such as a scandal with their neighbors or a naked run through a winter city at night, will help them cope with intrusive thoughts. However, studies show that the more you shake up your emotions, the weaker it is before the “alien invasion” of uninvited thoughts. On the contrary, try to calm down and rest - the more strength you have and the better your brain is, the more chances you have to repel an attack.

3. STOP BAD THOUGHTS

Deal with the obsessive thought - you will definitely pay attention to it, but only later. Include in your daily schedule "half an hour for painful thoughts" - but not before bedtime, but, for example, at the height of the working day. Thinking about what is bothering you during your lunch break will quickly take your mind off your problems and plunge back into work. Sooner or later, the subconscious mind will get used to the fact that obsessive thoughts have their own time with strictly defined limits, and will stop pestering you at other hours. Now you can think about how to exterminate annoying thoughts at this time.

4. FOCUS ON THE OBSESSION

Once upon a time, a patient came to the great physician Abu Ali ibn Sina, who complained that his eyelid was twitching. Ibn Sina prescribed him an extremely dubious remedy: every hour to begin to blink on purpose with an obstinate eyelid. The patient chuckled, but promised to strictly follow the prescribed. A few days later he came to thank the doctor. Like the remedy prescribed by Ibn Sina, this method works on the principle of "on the contrary": when an obsessive thought comes to you, try to force yourself to think it over from all sides, turn it this way and that, make yourself afraid that it will slip away from you - and you will soon feel that her grip is weakening and she herself would be glad to escape from you.

5. RECOGNIZE THE INEVITABILITY OF A BAD THOUGHT

Another way, somewhat similar to the previous one, is to replace the fear of the appearance of an unkillable thought with complete indifference to it. Learn to think of it as something external: for example, if it is the thought that a loved one left you, get used to the idea that this thought has nothing to do with him (or her), but exists on its own: here now I will go to bed, and my number one Thought will come to me again. Accustom yourself to the fact that this thought does not develop and does not tell you anything new - it just comes and goes, as twelve o'clock at night or winter come and go. And very soon you will feel that she is really leaving *.

6. MEDITATE

Meditation is a great way to organize your mind, bringing your thoughts under control. Practice it daily, trying to achieve a state of complete thoughtlessness. It is not easy, but if you learn how to do it, you will be able to induce this state at will, including it at the time of the day when you are most prone to bad thoughts, or in the situation when you become most defenseless against them.

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