i have learned to control my panic when i worry but i have not learned to control my obsessive thinking. my obsessive thinking still gets to me. . I hate it. i hate obsessing over dumb things. Has anyone recovered from their obsessive thinking and how so? any advice? I feel like im gonna go crazy with my thinking. It's not healthy for me tom think likethis.

Hi Holly. I have the same problem with obsessive negative thoughts. It is always the same thoughts and they are totslly irrational.
They just get me down and angry. I have not leaarnd how to control them yet. Hopefully soon.

Mine too are usually the same thoughts. I have many and i reuse them lol. I go through these dumb phases. this one has lasted for months and i really hate it. I want ot learn to control my irrational thoughts. They're not so much what if i get a panic attack while i am out. . . its more like what if i go crazy, stop breathing/swallowing, kill myself . . and the last one i know in my heart and soul i never would but the obsessive thoughts make me doubt myself and not believe in me.

Hi Holly. I also have thoughts that pop up out of no where and they scare me to death sometimes. I found this link and it makes sense, but it takes preactice. The link is
http://www.panic-and-anxiety-attacks.com/intrusive-thoughts.html
maybe this will help you as well.

Holly J, I don't think that you have to learn to control them. We all have that kind of behavior because of too much control and principles in our lives.
We have to learn to live with them without fear, to accept them and eventually they will fade away. Soon after I realized this I see some good changes, but it needs practice. So all we need is constancy and patience.

Holly, I read your post and I can relate to you so well. I don't think I have an anxiety attack, but I start to cry and can't stop thinking about how much I hate myself and wish I were dead. I also re-use the same thoughts (sometimes throw a new one in). I am sorry for you and your pain, but it helps to know that I am not the only one like this. I was wondering if you are any anti-depressants, I am and thought that maybe that is part of this hell.

I am not on any anti-depressants. I used to be. . Celexa did make me feel weird for sure and so did paxil. . . It could be your anti-depressant or it may just be your anxiety. . talk to your dr or psychiatrist ? ?

I have obsessive thoughts as well but I am sure i can get you all to LAUGH! I have obsessive SONGS playing in my head... When I am more anxious my mind never shuts down. I wake up in the morning with different songs playing in my head. This morning just happened to be I feel good by James Brown. At least my mind picks some good ones and you would think they would make me feel better but NO! It gets in the way of my positive dialogue I am supposed to be practicing the 1st week.
The road to recovery is long but not dull...

I am also in the same boat. The obsessive thinking drives me crazy. I too know I would never kill myself but often worry about it as a way to just stop all the thoughts! I feel like I cannot enjoy life, I can be in any situation and something will strike in my mind that will worry me sick. I started the prgram when I was 8 months pregnant, but have since had my youngest, bought a house, and have finally mostly settled in. Trying to restart the program but am finding it difficult to do with three children. I am lucky if i am in clean clothes with my teeth brushed each day!

The problem with obsessive thought's is that you wish that it is something material so you can push it away, The only thing that faces thought are thoughts themselves, don't ever think that you will just SNAP out of it cause you will feel so down when they come back, it's very easy to get use to them by time and they will not effect you, the esiest level of obsession is tohught, its the start of ocd that leads to rituals.
we humans have ups and downs, and specially ocd people wants perfection and think that they are odd to have these thought, well, every single humans feels what you do somehow but by different things.
I used to have anxiety over thinking that If I dont do the ritual I will be stuck in this thought forever and even AFTER death I will take it to grave, this caused me a major panic attack that I couldnt sleep that day, that was 2 years ago and untill now I think about it but it never effects me anymore, enjoying life yes and always saying that if I dont have it I will have a perfect life, WHICH DOESNT EXIST cause if it's gone these feelings will go to another thing..well maybe global warming or obsessing over any other thing, its a fact that each human being has obsessive habits, or else you wont see smokers. but the levels of each differs and the way others consentrate varies.
I've felt that Ive been into the deepest parts of obsession and no one ever knows about it.
anxiet is the fuel, was escaping the anxious thought by making things that allow me to escape from anxiety, to discover the hard way that I was just running away, it was like taking pain killers for your broken arm and not seeing a doctor for it. I just allowed the thoughts in there casue it is their place and every human has these thought and stopped being sensitive about it, to just realise that they are equal to the good thoughts, after that you will learn where to look, inside your brain there is dark places and light places, it's cool to be in them all.
you dont have to fight or do anything trust me, by time you will know that you are normal as you are and thank god that you have feelings to think, there's people out there that are drained from feelings and you cant count them as humans, at least you're feeling something.
and if you believe in god you should know that this life is not whats important, and we're not living forever here. it's the end what's important.
ok im so sorry for the long msg hehehehe
ROCK ON

I suffer from obsessive thoughts, and Gina's comment hit home for me too. So, obsessive thoughts and music, what a combination! It's kind of like my life is a bad movie with a very diverse soundtrack playing in the background.
No one is alone in having these thoughts, we are deep thinkers by nature (analyzing and reanalyzing all the time, in attempt to find balance). You will find that as a rule, persons who frequent forums such as this are quite intelligent and always analytical. We have enough knowledge to be dangerous to ourselves, which can sometimes force you into a backslide if you allow it. We know that something is "off", and attempting to find a solution will seem to amplify the offending thoughts. This entire process is a natural occurrence, to a point. The OCD kicks in and here we are dealing with an impacted problem. It's kind of like a late fee, it just piles up until it seems that the debt that has collected on ONE badly timed transaction is impossible to deal with efficiently.
Focus on why you are having these thoughts to begin with and go from there. You are not alone in feeling this way and definitely in the right place to start tackling this beast.
Take care.

Hi there I am on program five this week and I am trying to get through my obessive thoughts. I have had a lot on my plate this past year of my life.. I moved from Canada to the States with my husband with no family or friends and we moved here being rocky in our new marriage having problems. I also went to school out here and I dropped out not being able to deal with my marriage and school at the same time. When we left Canada we left our brand new home with everything there we didn't plain to move to the States but do to our marriage and my husbands job we thought it was the right thing to do. We had a lot of stress on our new marriage in Canada as well with my husbands father being really ill with a bad heart and he all most died and his family doesn't have much money and there was a lot of pressure on us money wise and emotional to help out which I believe you should do but I guess it started to take a toll on our marriage and his brother is our accountant and was all in our business with our finances which I understand that was his job but he took it to far buy getting to involved into our life with our money, also we just got married this past year but we were together for 7 years before we got married. Big problem is that I guess my husband comes from maybe a more normal family then mine my family as alot of problems from both sides. I thought to myself getting married my mother would be there for me and support me but she wasn't she didn't want any family there from both of my sides. Anyway she made my life a living yell this past year all I wanted was just to be some what normal and have a wedding. I have stated having really bad panic attacks out here not being able to breath or having obessive thoughts that I'm ill with something or thinking of death but I would never hurt myself because I love my family to much it just scares me to even have these type of thoughts in my mind. One obsessive thought is that I have been having latley is that I'm all alone in my own body and mind and nobody knows how I'm truly thinking or feeling. I don't know why this scares me because when it comes down to it we are all alone in our own minds and bodies. Ever snice we moved here I go out but not far and most times with my husband. I am scared to be alone with out my husband when ever he goes out I start having obsessive thoughts and I am scared to be alone. I am scared to get out there and get a job and to meet new people and I don't know how to get out there again. I am scared if I get back out there and start having a life again people will not understand what I'm going through and may thing there is something wrong with me.. Sorry for the novel but I would love some support from anyone that may have had thoughts like this and if so what do you do to over come it and get back out there to live life again..
Thanks (=

The truth about obsessive thinking, obsessive scary thoughts and the like is that you can't wish them away. You can't cry them away, and not wanting them is not enough to make them go away either. Being depressed about them will not make them go away. Telling yourself that these thoughts are not healthy for you to be thinking is just another scary thought and adds to the resistance, and that's why what you resist persists. Obsessive thinking calms down when you don't care one way or the other if you have the thoughts. When you have no emotional attachment to them whatsoever. The content of your thinking is not the problem. Your reaction to what you are thinking is the problem. The anxious feelings you have because of your resistance to them is what you are really afraid of. It's what makes you depressed. Stop reacting to them.

So what if you have obsessive thoughts. Go to www.ocdonline.com and learn some positive reactions to obsessive thinking. You'll heal faster with "acceptance" and "allowing" without emotion. Yes, it takes practice, so start now with the way you look at this challenge. It is cureable. It doesn't have to run your life. You are scaring you and you can reverse this by a new way of acting toward it.

Hi Holly
I thought I should post into this as well as I have been having scary thoughts since my anxiety started to become out of control winter of last year. My scary thoughts are about "what if I go crazy, hurt myself or someone else" it's the someone else part that freaks me out the most as I seem to fixate on those I love the most. (ie: what gets the most anxiety out of me)I know I wouldn't do either of these things and that I am not going crazy, but the fact is they still linger in my brain when my life is anything less than hectic. I try to be non reactive to the obsessive thought and it does seem to help. I find I used to have the entire "what if" statement in my thoughts, and now its as though i'm slowly deleting the thought word by word. It's no longer a complete thought, but fragments. Now I don't know if this is correct, but it seems as though I'm editing the OCD thought right out of my mind. I can get it down to one word.. what if, hurt, kill etc. and I just know that I am not that type of person and I'm not going to let it stress me. I get that initial burning in my chest at first, but I let it pass quickly. The thought passes and I go on with my day. So I hope this post helps you to know your not alone and hey maybe you dont think as scary as someone else.
Take care
You/we are our own safe person/place/thing.

I've never actually said/wrote my scary thought out to anyone before. The only person I've talked to about it was my councillor. Kicked my IBD into gear but now I feel better from writing that out. Not so alone.

Find the humor in every situation, laughter does wonders. Even when your laughing at yourself.