How do I deal with intrusive thoughts?

How do I deal with intrusive thoughts?
I've been getting some really horrible ones lately, and the more I try not to think about them, the more I end up thinking about them.
Some of them are really bad.

Keep reminding yourself that they're intrusive, and they're not you. They don't reflect who you are. Don't dwell on them, and don't give them more attention than they deserve.

You need to confront them you fucking pussy. Embrace the ugly side of life or forever dwell in neuroses.

Embrace it you fuck

Some of them are disgusting and I hate them. They're not what I believe or how I feel. I don't know where they came from. I don't want to embrace them. They're awful.

Look into the darkness and tell it to go fuck itself. It will consume you, but you'll grow balls of steel

Sounds reall gay but meditating and mindfullness helps a lot. It lets you see that the thought as it is, just a thought without judging it or trying to suppress it which will only make it worse. Anything by Jon Kabat-Zinn is good, really hleped with my

>how do subconscious desires work

THEY ARE YOU

This

"FUCK YOU DARKNESS, I CONTROL THIS MOTHERFUCKING MIND"

When you think about them, you have to switch contexts and think about something else.

E.g. if you are about to think about porn, start thinking about lettuce and all things related to lettuce.

You have to redirect whatever neurons are connected to that thought to associate with something else.

Identify the intrusive thoughts, allow yourself daily, then weekly time to deal with them, and force yourself to cut them off outside of your dedicated periods.
Helped me a lot

At least give some examples of what the thoughts are.

It does sound like anxiety though. I suffered with anxiety like a motherfucker and had to deal with intrusive thoughts for months before finally learning that they're a very natural bi-product of stress/anxiety and I should try my best just to allow them to happen for the time being, as relaxing to them is the best way of getting rid of them. Taking the stress out of the thought takes away its power.

I'm 100% straight, but I've had intrusive thoughts about my sexuality when I'm on drugs, but the thought of actually doing anything with a guy makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit. It's gross to me. Just the thought is gross.
That's not me, dawg.

I've been going through the same thing lately OP. No fuckin clue how this shit got into me, I just keep thinking about it and thinking about it. I watch TV and the slightest thing that even remotely relates to the new thoughts sets me off. I, for one, have decided to allow it to engulf me and now use it as a new identity. perhaps I can even make money off of it. This is how actors are born, OP. Let the thoughts overflow, let it seep into your actions. Let yourself go. The world is fucked anyway.

You are gay. Your conscious mind rejects it. Examine your dreams to maintain an understanding.

act on them. your subconscious isn't affected by typical human flaws (because you have no control over it) so it's very rarely wrong

Eat lot of fish oil to get omega oils. It will help with mental health to a certain point but you need up to 15g of EPA/HDA a day...

Best option would be just to determine can you live without doctor intervention or can you not. That depends of your age and what your specific symptoms are and also, are you using drugs etc...

It makes me want to throw up. If I were gay, it wouldn't even be something I think about. Just like being straight.
I have dreams about women all the time. Thinking about being with a man makes me feel ill. That's not gay, my man.

Anxiety? Maybe xanax would help

Your subconscious is the true you. Your conscious thoughts are shaped by so much context that you're just a small part in your own brain. It's scary, but listen to it for your own good

This logic is retarded. Intrusive thoughts are called intrusive for a reason. If I suddenly have the urge to kill the person next to me, I'm not a violent killer. I would never hurt another person. It's a disguting, horrible thought.

drop acid and put up with it

>when you're so gay your subconscious has to balance inherent gayness via dreams of women
>when you're so neurotic you become violently I'll thinking about gay stuff

I can think about gay stuff all day, and in knowing I have no attraction to men, I feel fine.

When you walk into a gas station bathroom and it smells like shit, and its so bad that you have ti hold your breath, do you feel sick at your stomach? Does that mean that you secretly like shit? Fuck off with that logic.

kek this

They're only intrusive because you deny their natural occurrence in your mind. You have seen through the veil and determined somebody must be killed, but being domesticated by societal interference has created a neuroses.

Your mind doesn't create the stench though. Stop being retarded.

>determined somebody must be killed
The person next to me on the bus? What the fuck did they do to deserve it? This logic is retarded and edgy. It's not a natural instinct.

I'm a programmer but I have general interest towards multiple fields of science. I think I might know why this happens but take this with a pinch of salt.

Your brain forms neural networks to handle processes and form "objects" from basic primal fragments like smell, color, shape, behaviour.

This biological neural network is running and learning all the time, modifying its behaviour on the fly. This allows you to have what can be described as awarness and conciousness; the ability to learn and do reflection.

The basic action of creating a new memory or action is strenghtening the relevant connections and hence making them more likely to be called all at once: You might remember your first kiss and the smell of her, but some connections may change over time, you may not remember her face.

This being noted, intrusive thoughts are stressful thoughts that have been relevant in the past and worth processing on the side, but which have unintentionally merged with actions: the connections to an intrusive thought is very strong and widely connected.

To unbind a thought you must process the intrusive thought and undo the reason it became intrusive in the first place. It should be possible like it is possible for a teenager to like angsty music but later in life learn to hate it. It simply takes time, effort and new activities to replace the old ones.

This is why you cant get rid of them. Because you dont want them. They just come back harder.

Intrusive thoughts exist as a sort of test, to make sure your brain is functioning properly. Your brain sends out a negative signal. If you feel disgust, you're working fine. That's the end of it. Don't let it go any further. You're not gay. You're just overthinking things, likely overthinking "why" you had the thought. It's totally random. There is no why.

t. psychiatrist

It is in fact a natural instinct. Why have people killed each other since the dawn of history, sometimes with no provocation at all? Why do animals kill the weakest parts of their packs? This world is overpopulated by the weakest members thanks to thousands of years of judeo christian slave morality, and we understand this in the backs of our minds. To deny it up front creates a fracture.

This is correct. Its just a test from your brain. You felt disgust from a disgusting thought. You're good, now stop thinking about it.

The subconscious is your embedded animal side from millions of years ago. There is no Christ savior. You are an ancient madman.

Write them down? I feel it helps to get whatever stresses me off my mind in some way.

i accidentally zoomed in on this quickly and almost got a heart attack

Shut up with your silliness.

Nerd.

That's sort of what I'm doing with this thread, and I'm feeling better now. It's nice to hear that other people have them.

LOL.

You are abnormal.

Here's mg advice. I've just started meditating and it works wonders at keeping my thoughts from going where I don't want them to go.

>set your phone timer for 10 min. Make sure the alarm isn't jarring, or you'll be anticipating it.

>sit upright, but most importantly make sure you're comfortable. You can take liberty with how you sit. Just make sure you can get air through your body.

>now start the timer and breath in through your nose and out of your mouth.

Your thoughts may stray and when they do, just bring them back to your breathing. Maybe even make a mantra in your head for everytime you breath out. I have problems with holding on to the past and worrying about the future so my mantra is

>breath in
>breath out
>(in my head)"live for now"

There is no wrong way to do this, so just take 10 minutes out of your day, and you'll be able to better control your life and your thoughts along with a bunch of other benefits.

OP take solace in the fact that you even know what intrusive thoughts are. Most people presumably don't, and their lack of awareness fucks up their psyche

Violence and sexual deviance are the most common intrusive thoughts. If your brain reacted negatively, you're in the clear. Stop dwelling on it.

>the more I try not to think about them, the more I end up thinking about them.
literally the opposite of what you should do.
resistance causes persistence. realize the thoughts are meaningless random occurrences of your neurons, similar to how uncomfortable gas forms in the intestines or stomach. let them be and they will go

Goddamit this man is right!!

This. But if it gets worse go to the hospital. You're most likely repressing something.

What are you repressing OP? How's the quality of your life?

Intusive thoughts are harmless as long as you do not act on the thoughts. Fighting them only makes them worse so instead of forcefully repressing them, acknowledge that you had this thought and let it go. Whenever I have intrusive thoughts I visualize this:
Imagine that your normal thoughts are a river and the intrusive thoughts are leaves that occasionally land in the river. Trying to force the leaves out of the river only creates eddies and pockets in the current that will cause the leaves to get stuck. Instead of trying to force them out of the river, Acknowledge that they are there, and let the current of thought take them away from your mind. Always remember that these thoughts need to recognized, they need to be acknowledged and then they need to be let go.

This really helped. Thank you, user.

No.

If a thought is used it's relevant connections (the "object" which contains properties AKA subconnections to senses and popular general use objects) is strenghtened. This means doing something and intending to do that something with no self-deception results in that thing and everything within it's definition becoming your main function.

Over time the previous is destroyed. It needs to be rebuilt or strenghtened, both which results in wild variations.

So the claim im making is as follows.
If you're having intrusive thoughts it's because something has bothered you for a long time. It has merged or binded with something that is called as part of something else. You can't just go
>Abracadabra, forget this shit already!
You need to solve the issue so it becomes low priority or as you would call it, unimportant.
It will be still called because its bound by physical connection, HOWEVER it will be called with it's solution which automatically dedicates less effort in tackling the issue from another perspective.

>How many countries there are in the world?
You've probably been taught this but you've forgot.
That's because it's irrelevant to what you do in your day-to-day life.
There is no reason to remember this.

I get awful thoughts, but only when I'm high, so I write them off.

You're welcome, Sup Forumsro

I get this too. Disregard high thoughts.

I should add that the solution isn't publicly defined. If you find peace by something like praying, determination, public declaration or anything really then that's your solution.

Because it doesn't come down to how you solve it but what you define as solved in general and how that definition works with your intrusive thought.

But acknowledge that unsolvable problems (intrusive thoughts) may change your definition of solved problem and thus your thinking pattern as a whole.A murderer may turn to god for salvation from the intrusive thought of guilt and in the process of making everything "alright" become a complete nutjob.

Meditate or focus on your breathing only. (preferably mediate while focus on breathing) That's two things you can do to quiet your mind. Probably the best solution aswell

That's extremely common. Just remember that your thoughts when you're high are fucking stupid. They don't make any sense. If you think something awful when you're high, who cares? You're on mind-altering drugs.

I do the same thing especially at night, I tend to try to distract myself as best I can, everynight I have youtube on my laptop or the tv on and i just watch it until i pass out. best thing i've figured, just straight distraction. music works too if you're really into it

This.

I suffer from this too. This thread is really helping me.