How to Overcome Intrusive Thoughts Caused By Anxiety and Stress
Cognitive Symptoms of Anxiety and Stress
Have you ever found yourself standing on a bridge or a tall building and been suddenly struck with the thought "I could just jump off and end it all" Or perhaps the idea of pushing someone off a train platform has unexpectedly popped into your head.
These intrusive or unwanted thoughts can range from being extremely negative, self-defeating, to even taking on a violent or sexual tone. Many individuals label these thoughts as bizarre, crazy, weird or scary. Such thoughts may be unsettling, disturbing, and efforts to suppress or eliminate them often tend to backfire.
In this video, I will delve into some of the reasons behind these seemingly crazy thoughts, exploring why fixating on and fretting over them can inadvertently intensify their frequency and intensity. By the end of this video, I'll offer insights into how you can respond to these intrusive thoughts in a way that puts your mind at ease rather than putting yourself into a state of anxiety.
ANXIETY INDUCED INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS
During moments of heightened anxiety, it's not uncommon to experience physical symptoms such as rapid heartbeats, trembling, sweating, and even frequent urination. However, psychological symptoms such as intrusive thoughts can also emerge. People often describe these thoughts as being intrusive in nature and outside of their conscious control. These thoughts might include the sudden urge to tear off your clothes in public, to drive into oncoming traffic, or to push someone off a building. Some people may experience thoughts and fears revolving around inappropriate arousal, committing violent physical or sexual acts, burning in hell for eternity, or going insane.
WHY PEOPLE FIND THESE THOUGHTS SCARY
People grappling with these thoughts often find themselves distressed and disturbed by them. These thoughts and images might occur periodically, repetitively, or they can be almost constant mental occurrences. In the face of such thoughts, the immediate instinct is often to analyse them thoroughly or to eradicate them through any means possible. Themes of social embarrassment, loss of control, and fears of insanity often accompany these thoughts. The belief that these thoughts won't ever fade away only causes the person further anxiety. People will often go to great lengths to rid themselves of these thoughts, fearing that the thoughts represent fundamental meanings about who they are as a person or indicate their hidden subconscious desires. It’s common for people to believe that having these thoughts makes them psychopathic, perverse, insane, or inherently evil. Those experiencing violent or sexual thoughts may also worry that their inability to eliminate these thoughts will inevitably lead to acting upon them. These interpretations only serve to compound the individual’s anxiety and distress.
INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS ARE NORMAL
It's important to recognise that these thoughts, visual imagery, and fears are a normal aspect of human experience. These thoughts occasionally visit everyone to one degree or another They're part and parcel of the human condition. The average person tends to not give these thoughts much significance, and subsequently the thoughts naturally fade away. However, when we are in a high state of stress and anxiety, the amygdala, the brain's threat detection system, becomes more active, and triggers the release of powerful stress hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, resulting in us being in a hyperaoured state. In this hyper-aoursed state these thoughts can seem more threatening and significant than what they really are. From a primitive perspective it is like we are in survival mode, scanning our environment for threats and other potential negative outcomes. This heightened state of alertness can play tricks on us, making us feel like we are in danger when we are not. From a survival point of view it is better to view everything as a threat, however this is not so helpful in the modern world where we do not need to be constantly on the look out for danger.
FEARING THESE THOUGHTS REINFORCES THEM
In this state of hyperasoual it can be very easy to get caught up in a cycle of anxiety about thoughts, where becoming preoccupied with the thoughts or worrying about them can make them more frequent and more intense, or even seemingly downright bizarre. Strategies such as fixating on the thoughts, analysing them, seeking reassurance, nervously distracting yourself, or trying to suppress the thought communicates to the amygdala that the thoughts are a source of danger. Since the amygdala’s role is threat detection, reinforcing the notion of a thought as a threat will lead to the fight of flight response being triggered. Think about how you might have avoided touching a hot stove or running away from a dog when you were younger. These behaviours reinforced the idea that these things are a source of danger. In this context this is good because any time you come into contact with these things again, you will experience a sense of fear and dread to remind you to keep from these sources of danger.
However, we can inadvertently train our brain to see thoughts as sources of danger too. When we react to these thoughts with apprehension we will experience anxiety. Anxiety is practically the same emotion as fear, except fear is a natural response to real and immediate threat, whereas anxiety has simply been triggered by your response to an imagined threat. For example, we might tell ourselves that if I can’t get rid of this thought that I will go insane. The more we respond to these thoughts in this manner the more we trigger off the stress response, otherwise known as the fight or flight response. This can leave us feeling like we are in real danger, and these feelings can make the thoughts seem even more threatening. With the frequent triggering of these stress responses, the body struggles to calm itself down, leading to accumulated stress and hyperarousal, and in this heightened state of anxiety, the frequency and intensity of these thoughts can become more pronounced.
SENSITISATION & DESENSITISATION
Since these thoughts become more pronounced in a hyperaroused state, focusing on the thoughts fearing them, analysing, obsessing, suppressing, or attempting to eliminate these thoughts will only result in the fight or flight response firing off again and again, intensifying the anxiety and subsequently making the intrusive thoughts more frequent and more intense.
When we respond to these thoughts in these apprehensive ways, you become more sensitised to them, meaning that you become even more afraid of them and sensitive to their presence. It's crucial to understand that the problem doesn't lie in experiencing these thoughts themselves; what’s important is how we react to them. If you are currently now sensitised to these thoughts, we just need to figure out how to desensitise yourself to these thoughts, meaning that you learn to accept their presence and reduce your sensitivity to them.
It’s important to note that we are not going to aim to eliminate the thoughts directly, as this will only reinforce to the brain that the thoughts are a source of danger. What we are going to do is to train the brain not to perceive these thoughts as threats. If we no longer see the thoughts as threatening then the brain does not fire off the fight of flight response, and subsequently we give our mind and body enough rest, allowing our nervous system to better maintain an optimum level of physiological arousal. In this reduced state of anxiety and stress, the thoughts naturally become less frequent and less intense.
HOW TO RESPOND TO INTRUSIVE THOUGHTS
Remember that the problem doesn't lie in experiencing these thoughts, what’s important is how we respond to them.
The following steps will help you to respond to these intrusive thoughts in a way that makes things better rather than inadvertently pouring fuel onto the fire.
1. Acknowledge and accept the thoughts or mental images without analysing them, distracting yourself from them, or trying to eliminate them.
2. Calmly Remind Yourself that these thoughts are simply symptoms of stress, and do not have any significant meaning or control over you.
3. Rather than resisting, welcome these thoughts, saying "Bring it on!" This technique weakens intrusive thoughts by depriving them of fear, conditioning the amygdala to see that these thoughts are not a threat.
4. Engage in productive activities whilst you allow the thoughts to exist in the background.
5. Identify unnecessary stressors in life and work on reducing or eliminating them. Reducing such stressors will help to reduce your level of physiological arousal. A natural side effect of this will be the thoughts reducing in frequency and intensity.
6. Consider engaging in a regular mindfulness practice. Mindfulness can help detach from intrusive thoughts by encouraging non-judgmental awareness of the thoughts. When we simply observe the thoughts without struggling with them we create new neural pathways in the brain, leading to an increased ability to detach from you thoughts, increased resilience, and feelings of tranquillity.
Bonus Tip: Refrain from scanning and monitoring whether the thoughts have reduced or gone away. Scanning and monitoring will only reinforce the thoughts as a threat. Continue to redirect your mind onto something more productive and have faith in the process.
TAKING BACK CONTROL OF YOUR MIND
Responding to these thoughts or mental images calmly and reducing general will reduce your level of anxiety, stress, and physiological arousal. It will also give you a stronger sense of control and autonomy. Once you practice in these new skills the thoughts naturally tend to fade away. Remember, everybody occasionally experiences bizarre thoughts, but the difference lies in how they respond to these thoughts. For example, if you want to feel calm and relaxed then it only makes sense to respond to things in a way that a calm and relaxed person would, right?
If you struggle with intrusive thoughts, you are probably giving them more significance than what they deserve. Fear stems from the belief that these thoughts possess profound meaning or could drive one to lose control. The reality is that you are in control, not your thoughts, and these thoughts hold no actual significance. Therefore you have no reason to be afraid of them, and no reason to try to analyse or attempt to directly eliminate them. By responding to these thoughts in a calm or neutral manner, the brain learns that these thoughts are not a threat, that they are insignificant. Once the brain registers this, it naturally stops producing them. It’s all a matter of conditioning. Occasional pop-ups may still occur, but by continuing to respond calmly to them you will have eliminated the fear that these thoughts feed off of.
Til next time.