5 cognitive-behavioral techniques for intrusive thoughts

Cognitive-behavioral techniques are very useful to combat intrusive thoughts. Those that invade our minds until they surround us with their toxic, negative and almost always disabling haze. Thus, and before intensifying our anxiety even further, leading to an unhelpful cognitive decline, it will always be of great help to us to apply these simple strategies on a daily basis.

For those who have never heard of cognitive-behavioral therapy, you will like to know that It is one of the most used “tool boxes” in the normal practice of any psychologist.. One of the pioneers in this type of strategy was undoubtedly Aaron Beck, who after using psychoanalysis for many years realized that he needed another approach.

The majority of people who suffered from depression, anxiety crises, stress, or those who faced any type of trauma, had within them a second obsessive, negative, and crushing “I” that plunged them into a continuous negative dialogue where it was very difficult to promote progress. Such was Dr. Beck’s interest in understanding and resolving this type of dynamics that he changed his therapeutic line for another that he considered much more useful.

Cognitive-behavioral techniques proved to be incredibly effective in clinical practice. In this way, if we manage to change our thinking patterns little by little, we will in turn reduce that negative emotional burden that often grips us in order to ultimately be able to generate changes and make our behaviors more integrative and healthy…

Cognitive-behavioral techniques for intrusive thoughts

Having obsessive and negative ideas is one of our greatest sources of suffering. It is a way of further intensifying the cycle of anxiety, of feeding that well that traps us while we surround ourselves with unhelpful images, impulses and reasoning that completely cloud our sense of control.

In these cases, it is not enough for them to tell us that “Calm down and don’t think about things that haven’t happened yet.”. Whether we want it or not, The mind is an incessant factory of ideas and, unfortunately, what it produces is not always of quality. nor does it help us in the least to achieve goals or feel better.

However, and this must also be said, We all have quite absurd and not very useful ideas at the end of the day. However, under normal conditions we do not give too much power to these reasonings because we prefer to prioritize those that encourage us, those that are useful to us.

Now, when we go through periods of stress or anxiety, it is common for intrusive thoughts to appear more frequently and we also grant them power that they do not deserve. Let’s now see what cognitive-behavioral techniques can help us in these cases.

1. Thought Records

Thought records allow us to apply logic to many of our mental processes.. For example, consider an employee who fears losing his job. Overnight, he begins to become obsessed with the fact that his supervisors, bosses, or management team think that everything he does is wrong, wrong, or lacks quality.

Entering this cycle of thinking can end up causing a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is, by dint of thinking that everything you do is wrong, sooner or later you will end up doing it (for example, by falling into a very negative state of mind). And so To have a greater sense of control, balance and coherence, there is nothing better than making records of the thoughts that grip us.

To do this, it is enough to record every negative idea that appears in our mind and try to reason its veracity.

“I am sure that everything I have done at work has been of no use”⇔ Is there anything to prove this to be true? Have they caught my attention? Is what I have done today different from what I have done on other days for you to think it is of such poor quality?

2. Programming positive activities

Another of the most useful cognitive-behavioral techniques in these cases is to schedule rewarding activities throughout the day. Something as simple as “giving ourselves quality time” achieves very positive results.and what it will achieve above all is breaking the ruminative cycle of negative thoughts.

These activities can be very simple and short in duration: going out for coffee with a friend, giving myself a break, buying a book, making myself a good meal, listening to music, etc.

These positive activities are aimed at interrupting our negative discursive thinking. Therefore, it is important to focus our attention on the activities we choose. It is preferable that they be short and we are concentrated than that they be long and we do not stop rambling. For example, Ten minutes of conscious breathing is much more fruitful than half an hour breathing with scattered attention..

If we have little time, One of the most recommended techniques is mindfulness or mindfulness. As mentioned before, consciously paying attention to your breathing has the potential to stop those thoughts that keep invading us. However, we must keep in mind that it is a practice that requires consistency. If we practice conscious breathing continuously, we will notice greater control of our thoughts.

3. Hierarchy of my concerns

Intrusive thoughts are like smoke from a chimney, the heat of something burning inside us. That internal bonfire is our problems, the same ones that we do not find a solution to and that cause more discomfort day after day.

A first step to control this focus of thoughts, sensations and anxieties is to clarify. And how do we clarify? Making a hierarchy of problems, a scale of concerns that will go from lowest to highest. We will begin by writing on a piece of paper everything that worries us, that is, we will “visualize” all the chaos that exists inside us as a brainstorm. continuation, We will make a hierarchy starting with what we consider small problems, until we reach the most paralyzing one. The one that, in appearance, surpasses us.

Once we have a visual order, we will proceed to reflect on each point, we will try to rationalize and provide solutions to each step.

4. Emotional reasoning

Emotional reasoning is a very common type of distortion. For example, if I had a bad day today and I feel frustrated, it is because life is simply little more than a tunnel with no exit. Another common idea is to think that if someone disappoints me, lets me down, or abandons me, it means that I don’t deserve to be loved.

This is another of the most useful cognitive-behavioral techniques that we must learn to develop on a daily basis. We cannot forget that our specific emotions are not always indicative of an objective truththey are just momentary moods to understand and manage.

5. Prevention of intrusive thoughts

Whether we want it or not, there are always situations that cause us to fall back into the abyss of intrusive thoughts. One way to be attentive to these circumstances is to carry a personal diary to make records.

Something as simple as writing down our feelings every day, what goes through our mind and when these states and internal dynamics occur, will allow us to become aware of certain things.. Maybe there are people, customs or scenarios that make us lose control, that cause us to feel helpless, worried or angry.

As we make more records we will become aware of all this and we will be able to prevent (and even manage).

In conclusion, it must be said that There are many more cognitive-behavioral techniques that can be useful for these and many other cases. where to better manage anxiety, stress and even depressive processes. For this, we have books as interesting as “Manual of cognitive-behavioral techniques” or Aaron Beck’s book “Therapies for anxiety disorders.”

Within our reach is acquire and develop more resources to deal with the complexity of everyday life and to better understand that factory of ideas that is our mind.

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