odaat

I'm plagued with intrusive thoughts about unpleasant things at the moment; drinking, self-harm, binge eating, suicide and stuff like that.

I don't want to do any of that, but I can't stop thinking about it.

Any ideas? I'm praying and trying to distract myself. What else can I try?

best

I read scripture or sing songs.
The only way I found to remove thoughts is to purge them out by putting other thoughts in their place.
Need to find something to do that will keep your mind busy and not idle.

CarolD

Music...lively dance around the room tunes
then do the action...

Singing works well for me too.

Call a friend

Go for a brisk walk

Take a long bubble bath

Eat Ice Cream

and yes! Pray for peace.

angibaby

the hardest thing for me to do is to call someone else and tell them, but it is usually the most effective. angie

indigo

Do whatever it takes for you.

mike_mass

Like everybody else just said. Find a meditation group and learn to sit still and breath. Also cut down on coffee and sweets.

odaat

Thanks for the ideas. A meditation group might be an idea - my Mum goes to one and I'll ask her about it, to see if it'd help me. I'm no good at sitting quietly at the moment.

I wish I could cut down on coffee and sweets, that'd be so simple. Only problem is I've not had any in the past 3 months. It has helped a little.

I'm listening to music at the moment which helps. I think sleeping it off is the only thing to do sometimes.

I'm going to see a psychiatrist soon,and I think I'll bring this up as its making life pretty hard.

laurenlanai25

hi!!

sometimes it really sucks, but i remember sharing something similar in a meeting once about changing thoughts and someone shared with me that i had to do the action adn that the thinking would follow! i was so annoyed!! i was told to do whatever was in front of me whether it meant cleaning, dishes, laundry, taking a walk, etc....how stupid i thought, they obviously dont get it!! how are these things going to get my mind out of bad places? but i did it and to my disbelief the thoughts slowly went away! my destructive thoughts now were becoming less! obviously it didnt happen over night, but keeping myself busy doing constructiv things was very helpful!! i wanted that instant gratification but in the long run that always proved to be the wrong thing for me!! well i have rambled on too long. i guess this is the long version to what best said! ha!
good luck!!

SaTiT

Just embrace them or stop fighting it. Just process them
and let them go by as a passing parade, eventally the parade
will come to an end. just as an engine will eventaully run out
of gas, if you just let it run itself out.

thoughts are just thoughts.
They only have values by what values i give them.

in other words, even if I have good thoughts or ideas, nothing is going
to happen unless i do something about them or take actions.
So the samething is true even if I have negative thoughts,
nothing will happen unless I do something.

the reason why we get negative painful thoughts or emotions
in earily soberity is painful emotions are sharper and louder.
they catch our attentions faster. it's also habitual.
we don't know or can't identify other thoughts in between.
Most of time we will identify these emotions as bordom and
not process them or experince them.
so we simply put a verity of emotions we can't identified as bordom.

Therefore a simple excersize of writing a list of emotions
will help us in expanding our emotions.

a simple excersize i did was to right or recall all of the good moments
in my left. Good moments are more subtle..the emotions
are not as sharp so they don't jump out at us.

contary to my perceptions...good things happens to me just
as much as bad things. i just had a habit of lacthing to negative
thoughts and emotions and reliving them or regenerating
the same negative thoughts in my head over and over again.
while the actaul pain experince might only taken moments or
seconds to occure. I simply replayed them in my head again and again.

Not sure how your brain process things..if you see images
or hear a vioce. I generally see images, then those images
triggers emotions. thoughts>emotions>action/reactions.

this is why my sponsor made me do gradtitude lists,
instead of working the steps or ripping throught the steps.
it's training my mind to be posistive, it takes practice and
there's a learning curve.

if i don't think there's nothing for me to be gratful for.
Then i should take a visit to the local emergency room
or hospital. The simple things in life I take for granted.

parentrecovers

this sounds like a smart choice - get all the help and support you can - you deserve it.

hugs, k

SaTiT

The samething is true or the same principle applies to resentments.
When someone trapassed us, we get angery. We'll either trun the
anger inward and not process it...which will lead to depression.

also, if we continue to play that sarnario in our head over again,
it truns into a resentment. We simply get angery and beat up ourselve
and don't anything about it...we don't take proper actions.
we just play those negative thoughts over and over again whcih
triggers indorphine in our brain. Somewhere along the line of being
an emotional junkie..the same is true with selfpity, drama..etc.

So by identifying the our emotions better, there's a wider spectrum
from to anger to resentments. anger is not the same as a resentment.
A resentment is reliving the same anger over and over again. therefore
we suffer in resentments.

in other words , life is not without pain...suffering is optional.

Missymae737

Hi,

Just believe you can get through these thoughts...Keep posting here...

We are here to support you...

splendra

Hey ((((odaat))))

I hope you are well. I started a thread about "self actualization" in this forum. I wonder if you might go read it if you have not yet and maybe pick out something in it to comment on.