How do you deal with intrusive thoughts? 2

All the time I have the thought that I need to move abroad( not to United States) and there to have much more
peace of mind.
But my parents are in Israel and I am completely dysfunctional and unable to live independently.
So the conclusion is that I probably have to stay in Israel
unless my functioning improves significantly.
So the thought to move abroad is an intrusive thought, how do I get rid of it?

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There is a difference between a wish and an intrusive thought. Intrusive thoughts are disturbing, and not things you would choose to think about.

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Yes these thoughts are disturbing and I don’t want to think about this, it is stressful and impractical.

CBT has taught me to recognize intrusive thoughts and push them aside.

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I supplemented with high-dose vitamin c and lysine, and my intrusive thoughs are now only a fraction of what they were a month and a half ago.

The lysine can dissolve clots, which I suspect is what gave me SZ symptoms (as well as horrible headaches, which I don’t have anymore, now it’s just a mild pressure.)

I’m still taking 3 mg paliperidone daily. Have been for about a year now,

Do you have any links to double-blind, placebo-controlled studies highlighting the benefits of vitamin C and lysine on intrusive thoughts?

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Honestly the best way to deal w intrusive thoughts is to accept them. Trying to repress intrusive thoughts has actually been proven to make them worse. Instead when they pop up say “I think I need to move out of Israel. This isn’t a rational thought but I accept I feel this way.” Then move on with your day.

Mindfulness meditation and therapies like DBT are great for teaching you how to accomplish this.

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I don’t agree with you @Anna.
The best method is to try to ignore them/replace them with other thoughts.
We should have total control over our thoughts,
otherwise we are like puppets in a puppet theater.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ironic_process_theory Psychology would disagree with you.

If you attempt to have total control over your thoughts you are setting yourself up for failure…take it from someone who has tried desperately before…

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I second that, not accepting my intrusive thoughts would end up in them coming back ten fold and sleepless nights!

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There’s a study on the benefits of Lysine for improving negative and general psychopathology symptoms in chronic schizophrenia posted by SzAdmin on this forum at: Amino Acid - L-Lysine - New Treatment for Schizophrenia - Has it Helped You? .

There’s also a study showing that SZ patients have decreased plasma ascorbic acid, and that supplementing with Vitamin C lowered their BPRS (Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale) scores, at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16133138 .

It’s a good combination, there’s even talk of it potentially reversing heart disease (according to Nobel laureate Linus Pauling.)

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I suppose I am a puppet in a puppet theater, I live with my intrusive thoughts. Today I was talking to my younger brother and couldn’t stop thinking about kissing and licking him. Yeah I’m a weirdo, most of my intrusive thoughts are sexual in nature. Usually they take the form of whatever seems most unacceptable to you and whatever causes the most guilt. For me that is incest and homosexuality. For you that is not being patriotic to your nation.

I read that the intrusive thoughts are just our attempt to rationalize feelings of anxiety. In other words our amygdalae light up and we attempt to explain those primal feelings of anxiety in words. Hence “I don’t want to work, I want to leave Israel etc”. It is your mind playing tricks on you @erez, nothing more and nothing less.

@eduvigis to me the thought to move abroad is intrusive not because I don’t want to,
but because it’s irrelevant.
I hope you manage to control your intrusive thoughts.
I think that any sexual thoughts are in essence intrusive.

Not everyone who experiences intrusive thoughts experiences them the same. What for me might be intense fear or foreboding might for you just be mild annoyance.

I suppose you were lucky in that you find it easier to control your thoughts. I remember times before schizophrenia when I could perfectly tune out the sexual nonsense. Now it has become a part of my daily experience, I suppose a glorified annoyance.

Remember, normal people without schizophrenia or OCD don’t have to battle with their thoughts in the way you have described yourself doing. If you are trying to consciously control your thoughts you may be expending energy which could be used for other intellectual pursuits.

I get intrusive thoughts similarly to someone with Tourette’s Syndrome. Thank goodness I don’t just blurt out what comes in my mind.
My response to these thoughts is the same as my response to demons, I rebuke them.
So, they’re there, I acknowledge them, I rebuke them as something I don’t agree with or want, and in doing so I’ve distracted myself with new thoughts.
It does seem to me that there’s a difference between a persistent obsessive idea and an intrusive thought. I can get an idea stuck in my head that is a waste of time and that’s frustrating, but intrusive thoughts are flashes of things I would never normally think. I generally wouldn’t feel ashamed of persistent thoughts and ideas, but if other people could hear my intrusive thoughts I’d be really embarrassed and ashamed…even thoughI don’t create or agree with them.

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I don’t have intrusive thoughts often but when I do they are usually of me doing something that is absolutely inappropriate for the situation…sometimes I think of doing stuff like smacking someone upside the head, so then I picture myself doing it and end up laughing at its absurdity…and the person wonders why the heck I burst out laughing. I guess the visualization helps diffuse them for me.

How are you @Erez_Shmerling ?

I am suffering from severe intrusive thoughts . I can’t cope. I already feel poisoned from my drink because I have people after me for these thougjts. I feel so insane.

@see121, can you get an appt with your pdoc to discuss your intrusive thoughts and belief you are being poisoned? Maybe its something that could be solved simply with a med adjustment.