I was just writing about my nice day then wham, a few minutes ago I was hit by a terrible inserted intrusive thought of murder - me a murderer? No I don’t think so, IT IS NOT MY THOUGHTS!!! Oh God, it was terrible! There must be a monster living in my brain but its not me! Its crazy how sz can just hit you out of nowhere. I don’t know if the thought is real or not but it seemed real it distressed me so much. Just when I thought I was doing better, it always goes the other way, up, down, up, down.
Life can really suck sometimes.
No, they aren’t your thoughts, they are the product of your illness.
There’s nothing monstrous about you. Those thoughts are no more monstrous than high blood sugar in a diabetic.
You recognize that they are a product of your illness. That’s a big step in recovery.
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Thoughts have always been more my symptoms then anything. One of the therapies I tried was CBT and part of my homework was looking into ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) Which is also part of the mindfulness approaches and available in the US and Australia and growing. One of the skills is to break up all sorts or our random thoughts even irrational ones of SZ by thinking things like “thinking” thanking your brain for coming up with incredible creative stories etc. It can be a bit of a mind game to get started but does work and gets easier as you go along. There are a few self help books available on it and will explain it better then I could. One in particular The happiness trap by Dr Russ Harris, Which I got out from my local city library. If your interested would be a good place to start and sure it will help a great deal.
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My CBT did a tiny bit of this as well. Sometimes… I’m Ok and when an violent thought or something disturbing out of the blue hits me… I can force myself to step back and think… that’s original… or That’s not boring. It’s hard to do sometimes… but sometimes I just have to say…“No, I don’t like that… fly away.”
Thanks for the book recommendation. I have put it on my wishlist on Amazon.com. Any other book recommendations?
Stop thinking start living - by Richard Carlson. It sort of the same thing but doesn’t give exercises to help with the thoughts etc. It does however give you a better idea what sort of person you are working to become though. It’s more directed on minor depression and there is a disclaimer in it to talk to your therapist that you’re reading it more so if your suffering more then minor depression. But I found the ACT stuff and this book go hand in hand.
The other one recommended in CBT to me is The Reality Slap by Dr Russ Harris on ACT goes more into how he’s used the skills in day to day life so some prefer that one. I’ve still to find a cheap way of getting it, so have yet to read it though.
I’m the same on thanking my brain on the more irrational damaging thoughts but a long time ago was told by a therapist of thinking I.T. - (Irrational Thought) and not to be confused with “it” so I try to use that one. I find it more effective and easier but I’ve got a extremely lazy brain when it comes to woking on a better mental health, - Do check with your therapist if it’s even healthy to use these days though as maybe out dated and might cause more problems then help with what your doing in therapy.
Thank you for the additional book recommendations. I will take a look at them.
Uh, have you considered empathy? Maybe it’s your neighbor or something? Just because you have a thought doesn’t mean that some trigger or emotion didn’t create the thought. Maybe you were just disturbed by something on TV. Take a Vistaril my friend!
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