Since getting on a good anti-psychotic regimen, I’ve been a heck of a lot more stable. But there are some symptoms that have lingered regardless. One of these things is intrusive thoughts, which I have all the time. If I’m driving, I get sudden urges to steer into a pole, or into oncoming traffic, or just accelerate until I’m going way too fast. At home I have thoughts of getting a gun and shooting either myself or my husband. When out with a friend, I see images of bouncing their head off the table or stabbing them with a fork or something. These thoughts are so vivid that I often recoil physically from them, shaking my head to clear the thought from my mind. The thoughts are usually violent, or self-destructive, and are sometimes accompanied by a voice telling me what to do (this is the only time I hear voices any more). Being tired makes them worse.
So what do you guys do about these thoughts? Should I just ride them out and try to ignore them, like I’ve been doing, or is this something that might require a med adjustment? I feel pretty great otherwise, a touch of paranoia and a few delusional ideas but other than that and the intrusive thoughts, my positive symptoms have been very manageable. I don’t see my psychiatrist until the end of August, is that too long to wait? I tend to forget to mention these things to him, he just ask me how I’m doing and I invariably say “great” and leave it at that, so he has no idea that I still have symptoms. What should I do?
I’ve done that whole force yourself into car crash thing. I still don’t know what to suggest. I just acted on a couple intrinsic thoughts until I recognized on my own that it doesn’t have a good outcome and a few weeks went by of not acting on them then my intrinsic thoughts went away. It has been 1.5 years now of not having any and I think it was CBT that helped, too.
I have many intrusive thoughts also, this disturb me, sometimes I try to ignore these things, but in the majority of the time I can’t ignore. I keep telling whispers inside my mind that I don’t want to hear these things (voices or intrusive thoughts), but it tends to come back.
Then I keep stuck inside my mind, hearing these things.
What you could do to stop these things is to read something that you want, like a book or an internet text, for instance. Listen music, sometimes help me also.
To this day, I still have intrusive thoughts as well
What I learned in DBT is creating a table. One is “What the Thoughts are Saying” the next is “Evidence against it” and finally “Your comeback” So basically argue with that thought until you see the real rational truth behind it. Hoped this helped and I hope those intrusive thoughts go away soon!
ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy) is based on Buddhist mindfulness. One of the skills is breaking up unwanted thoughts in this case thinking “Thank you brain for coming up with incredibly creative stories.” It’s a bit of head game especially when starting to gain experience using it when overwhelmed with constantly attacking thoughts but does work.
There are two self help books on ACT around both by Dr Russ Harris The Reality Slap and The Happiness Trap both worth a read.
i am trying to feed my head good thoughts in hope that it will eventually replace the automatic negative thoughts. so far it’s not working but only been trying for a couple weeks. i also get the thoughts telling me to crash the car . it happens on the highway and i force myself to get off the next exit and take back roads. that helps
Oh God, I so have trouble with these intrusive thoughts too! I know how crap it feels! I tell Alien to f*** off each times he places them in my head. Dunno what else to do, listen to music, force positive thoughts of my own into my head? Something like that…
Okay, this is the first time I’ve opened up about this, but I also suffer from intrusive thoughts. I never had them prior to being medicated. I hate myself for having them, I feel like a piece of crap. I have sudden urges to crash my car and smack my eldest child ( I would never act on it). The other day I had a sudden urge to smack my husband across the face. I really don’t want a med change as I think the meds are what is causing the problem.
