Nothing can be more frustrating than having a thought in your head that you can’t get rid of. Worse is when the thought is something negative or violent and makes you feel fear or deep anxiety.
For some people, this happens daily and needs to be treated before it gets worse. The more time passes, the longer it can take to finish the cycle. Obsessive thoughts are a form of OCD, obsessive compulsive disorder.
So how do you stop obsessive thoughts?
The first step is to stop trying to get rid of them. Whatever it is you tend to think about, you will keep thinking about it even if it is something you don’t want to think about. What do I mean?
Well, if I told you not to think of a white bear. What would you do? Inevitably you would think of a white bear. What if you told yourself over and over again to stop thinking about the white bear? What will happen? Any. You will keep thinking about it because you are saying to yourself “white bear”.
Psychologists call this “The White Bear Syndrome.” You see, your mind can’t visualize the word “no,” so all it hears is “white bear.” Try it yourself. Say the term “don’t think of a white bear” or any other term and see what image comes to mind. What you will see is the thing but you cannot see the word “no”.
This is why the Law of Attraction has become so popular. What you focus on you will get. Another example is debt. If you focus on getting out of debt, you will still have debt. Why? Because you are still focusing on debt.
When you focus on compulsive thoughts that you don’t want and try to get rid of them, you will continue to have those thoughts. The point is to stop trying to kill those thoughts. I know it can be easier said than done, especially when you’ve had the same thoughts over and over for a period of time, as they tend to keep coming back. But you need to understand that trying to get rid of them will not work.
The next thing you can do to stop obsessive thoughts is to change your perception about the thought. If a thought makes you anxious, try visualizing the thought on a movie screen and imagine yourself watching a movie while eating popcorn. When you take away the direct role from yourself, you take away its power over you.
