Ever since Columbine, and the copy cat incidents that happened in its wake, I’ve been obsessed with global societal collapse fears, off and on. Lately, I’ve been trying to watch how much news I read and try not to get too riled up.
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I take ativan 1mg and l-theanine 200 mg three times a day for my anxiety. When I am anxious my OCD definitely gets worse.
Mindfulness meditation is supposed to reduce the number of thoughts in your head. You have to do it daily to see results. After a couple weeks of practing focusing on your breath your thoughts during meditation will be reduced and the effects last longer than just when doing the meditation.
I would commit to doing it for a month, half an hr each day and see if it helps. I bet it will.
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My strategy with obsessive and intrusive and unwanted and “GET OUT OF MY HEAD ARRRRGGG LEAVE ME ALOOONNNNEEEEE!” thoughts is, every time such a thought pops us, you distract yourself, you think of something else, something compelling, something happy. If I give such thoughts an inch, they take a mile, as they say. I do not give such thoughts a millisecond of my time. This way, the brain is rewired and the obsession gives way. It is simple, but it is not easy. Think of the brain as a muscle that you have to strengthen. Every time you successfully avert an unwanted thought your brain gets stronger and it will be easier to avert the next one.
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Hi @shutterbug, I want to take cbt for my intrusive thoughts. How does one start?
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I used to get pure o ocd thoughts of hurting others or myself or animals, i am a kind person and would never do so. I call them my white teddy bears, like the white bear phenomenon on wikipedia. I learned to face my fears to some extent by thinking of even worse things and strangely enough proving to myself over and over that I wont even step on an ant. We live in an unpredictable world and some of us are far more sensitive to that than others. If anything this excessive worry allows you to empathize with those who worry on a consistent basis.
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not suggesting you do what i do, there are probably better methods of dealing with excessive worry.
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I consider myself so blessed that I don’t get intrusive thoughts.
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I wish you the best @Wave! It’s too bad. I’m in the same murky pond. My worries are somewhat grounded in the realm of possibility but still frustrating because after all the reassurance I receive I’m still a tadpole in a stagnant pond.
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Talk to your doctor or nurse and see if it is available. If not, you can do what I did and buy books about it from Amazon or some other seller and design your own program based on the principles in the book. (There is no CBT available where I live so I had to figure it out on my own.)
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Have you tried rexulti? I think it helps my OCD tendencies a bit. I take Lexapro for it too but as I understand it that’s something you can’t tolerate. Why can’t you take a SSRI? Sorry I forgot why.
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I try to do things that help me focus on positive thoughts, which doesn’t seem to leave room for obsessing and worrying.
It’s easier said than done.
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Antidepressants including SSRIs will make me manic @tera.
I started taking an increased dose of Depakote, hopefully I will start feeling better.
@Wave I sure do hope you get to feeling better soon. Worry can eat you alive.
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Thank you @tera 
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