Intrusive thoughts: what are they and how to eliminate negatives

Intrusive thoughts are those thoughts that involuntarily appear intermittently. There is a great diversity of repetitive and automatic thoughts, and some of them are very unpleasant, even coming into being that of wanting to harm others, such as your own children.

This type of thinking generates a lot of discomfort and, in turn, other thoughts of the type "you shouldn't feel this way." In many cases we even blame ourselves for something that is normal, which is involuntary and unconscious thoughts.

The rumination of thoughts is adaptive, it seeks to filter the thoughts that are useful, but, it does not usually achieve it, since that, in addition, we anticipate and believe that next time we will think the same thing again, with which the problem will aggravates.

• Related article: "Rumination: the annoying vicious circle of thought"

Why, even if we want to eliminate intrusive thoughts, do they remain?

There is usually a vicious circle; For example, consider the case of a mother who has the intrusive thought of wanting to harm her child, but of course she knows that this is not what she wants to do and is not going to do it. In these cases there is usually a circular pattern that occurs in this order and through these elements: internal stimulus (exhaustion that leads to intrusive thinking and involuntary throwing out of the window), external stimulus (baby crying), sensations such as palpitations, anxiety and fear emotion, avoidance reaction thought.

Behind this circle comes anticipation and catastrophism, which, as we have commented, increases the problem.

How do we approach them from therapy?

Automatic thoughts are a reflection of our beliefs, but we are not our thoughts. Therefore, once the evaluation has been carried out and any other pathology is ruled out, we work on the defusion of thought, that is, distance ourselves from these mental phenomena and connect more and give greater importance to actions, putting the focus on action aware.

An adequate functional analysis is essential, studying the external and internal stimuli involved and the response (physiological / motor / cognitive) as well as the consequent ones. If there are avoidance behaviors (calling on the phone, not thinking about the problem ...) we make the problem worse, since we do not expose ourselves, so something essential is exposure to emotions, reactions and thoughts.

1. Therapeutic resources for intrusive thoughts

Some of the dynamics used in our practice to work on this problem are the following.

2. Psychoeducation

It is essential to explain to patients what happens to them and why.

3. Behavioral experiments

With them, it is a question of verifying that when we want to not pay attention to our thoughts, they appear more strongly.

4. Cognitive restructuring and discussion

This is one of the great techniques of psychology and on which a large part of our treatments is based. It consists of providing the person with the necessary tools to You can come to the conclusion that the thoughts that are causing you discomfort are not objective or helpful.

• You may be interested in: "Cognitive restructuring: what is this therapeutic strategy like?"

5. Relaxation exercises

Sometimes it is necessary to provide the patient with relaxation strategies to decrease arousal caused by stressful thoughts.

6. Analysis of patient beliefs

Behind the intrusive thoughts are usually the personal beliefs of the person. For example, if the intrusive thinking is about killing your child, it is common to associate beliefs such as "a good mother never loses her temper" and excessive demands.

7. Associated symptomatology work, generally anxiety and guilt

As we have mentioned, unpleasant thoughts and mental images that appear involuntarily, generate great discomfort, even being able to suffer anxiety attacks; this usually makes the problem last longer. The same goes for guilt. Continuing with the same example, the mother who has the image of killing her child and this generates great fear and guilt, feeds back the vicious circle.

8. Thought defusion

We are not what we think, we are what we do, therefore, we work to give more importance to actions and detach ourselves from thoughts that appear without our will.

9. Controlled exposure to situations and thoughts that are avoided

Due to the fear that these kinds of thoughts usually generate, we avoid those associated situations. For example, if a person has the recurring idea that he can hurt himself (but it is not with autolytic ideation because he would not want to do it or feel like it), he may try to avoid catching knives.

10. Self-talk

It is closely related to the beliefs of the person; is what we tell ourselves that can reduce or aggravate the problemTherefore, it is essential that we work on it in therapy.

11. Concentration on values ​​and actions of the person

If the person has thoughts, for example, of hurting someone, but this generates rejection, do not would like to do it and does not conceive it as adequate, it is necessary to redirect the person to these values ​​that he has of so that, in turn, guilt will decrease.

12. Training in directed attention

Is about put our attention in other kinds of situations and external and internal stimuli.

13. Acceptance

There are thoughts that will not disappear completely or that, for a time, will accompany us, therefore, the work of acceptance is key.

Are you interested in having professional help?

On Mariva Psychologists, clinic located in Valencia but that also offers online psychology, we are specialists in working with this type of psychological problems. Despite the fact that these alterations can generate a lot of suffering, with cognitive-behavioral treatment very results are obtained. positive thoughts, getting to eliminate the intrusion of unpleasant thoughts or, failing that, they accept and eliminate the discomfort that these cause. Here you can see our contact details.