How do you stop your mind racing?
Trudgin
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 6,348
Most alcoholics I know need to pole vault over some issue that to others is but a grain of sand. When one gets a flat tire most call AAA repair. I may have to call suicide prevention hotline!
Good techniques posted here - see what works. Maybe different things at different times. Try some and post back about what you found helpful. In doing so you'll help the next friend.
Glad you're here
Good techniques posted here - see what works. Maybe different things at different times. Try some and post back about what you found helpful. In doing so you'll help the next friend.
Glad you're here
Member
Join Date: Jan 2013
Location: Georgia
Posts: 3,062
I have found going outside and looking at the sky, going for a walk, saying the Serenity Prayer or writing it down over and over, and crocheting (I think it is the counting and the repetition and colors that help) are my focus tools.
Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Oct 2015
Location: The North, UK.
Posts: 155
Originally Posted by Frickaflip233 
...I was thinking about this last night. I will have little things happen throughout the day that can cause resentments and victim thinking. If I don't nip those immediately, let them go, they start to build. Its like a cumulative effect. Just a layering of irritation. That will start my mind ruminating on these resentments. Then my thinking starts to pull out old resentments...maybe things where I truly was a victim...and I'm off to the mind races. Its crazy. And not a good place for me to be because sometimes I don't actually catch whats happening until I'm really in a bad place.
Letting go, acceptance, forgiveness. And recognizing what I can and cannot control. It takes practice.
Member
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: SE USA
Posts: 599
One of the tricks I have learned is when it starts I try to turn my thoughts to someone else. Someone who is new to sobriety, sick, had something really bad happen recently, etc... I will try to reach out to them even with just a simple text asking how they are doing. When I do this it works. Something about getting out of myself. And it does take practice and I have to want to do it. Sometimes I can get in a rut and for some sadistic reason choose to suffer rather than fix it.
Giving up is NOT an option.
Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Western Wisconsin
Posts: 7,809
Lots of good suggestions here. I have a guided meditation app on my phone I use sometimes. There are several of them out there. The key is to do the meditation BEFORE you get so wound up. I don't use the app much anymore because I have learned to just meditate for a few minutes on my own when I start feeling anxious. Going for a short walk really helps, too. I'll do that at work sometimes when the stress starts to build. Hope you can figure out how to tame the "monkey mind."
Member
Join Date: Jan 2016
Location: Melbourne
Posts: 151
I'm on anti psychotic medication (olanzapine) because of constant racing thoughts and other reasons i dont want to mention. I no longer get the racing thoughts though which is great. I don't recommend taking them though
Member
Join Date: Jan 2017
Posts: 701
One thing I've found VERY helpful (and which I am utilizing right now...) is to go to Youtube and search for mantras, chants, and the like. The Om chanting stuff. Hindu/Buddhist/Native American, etc. You can even find chanted Christian prayers, in addition to hypnosis / affirmation videos and the like. SOmetimes NOT understanding the words is a blessing in itself.
Try it, you might like it!
Try it, you might like it!
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