I suffer from OST (thanks to LD-her abbreviation for Obssessive Scarey thought) and I am finding it hard to begin to trust myself again, no matter what the thought. Does anyone else have this?

kinda hard to trust myself when i tell myself nothing is wrong with me, health anxiety, and im healthy, go figure.

YES! I have developed a huge problem with this. I really do have a problem now discerning legitimate thoughts, both positive and negative, from other thoughts. I explina away my constant obsessing with reason, but they still persist sometimes and I am doing the same things with good thoughts and feelings. "Oh, I'm only happy with this person or situation because of this unrelated or superficial reason..." It is very upsetting and I have become very burned out and depressed over it. I no longer know what I feel and/or think. Any ideas would be helpful and welcome. It's definitely having a negative effect on my life. I'm sorry you guys are going through it, too. hang in there

Good morning,
I haven't been on the forum in a while. Just living - and wanted to stay off of it and be my own person for a bit.
I have read a lot on this subject. I had extreme versions of the scary thoughts. It started w/ my fear of having a heart attack, then fear of being alone, then to stabbing my hubby and child with knives and then hurting myself. (Mine really evolved). They went haywire.
My best advice - let them be there. Don't analyze it, don't read into it, don't run from them and don't push them away.
Just let them come and play their tricks. Give them permission to be there.

What is happening is that your fear and dislike of them is keeping them alive.
I really don't have these thoughts anymore. They went away after a few months. Sometimes they try to come back and I laugh them off. I think they are there sometimes just out of habit.
It's the same procedure with all of our symptoms. Just let them come, give them permission and don't be too impressed by them.
They will go away like all of the other symptoms.

Let me know how it goes... Good luck!

I have a difficult time just relaxing and "enjoying the moment" I find that my thoughts come more intense when I am in a "happy" situation. Any thoughts? It's like my mind doesn't want me to feel happy or experience a thrill...

Hi GE,
We haven't "talked" in a while! Yes, I know what you're talking about - finding it hard to trust yourself after having those awful scary thoughts. I've been doing real good, but just this morning, I woke up with anxiety (that hasn't happened in a while!) and I had that "uneasy" feeling associated with not trusting ourselves for about half of the day. Fortunately, I had a very busy day with work and before I knew it - the thoughts had gone away. You just have to keep telling yourself you are okay and you CAN trust yourself. Even when you don't feel like it or whether or not you believe it - keep telling yourself "I trust myself...I am a good, kind person. I am strong." Whatever is comforting to you...say it over and over. Your mind isn't going to want to let go of the thoughts because they are still scaring you so much. Those awful, anxious, thoughts that seem to come out of nowhere and scare the crap out of us! Don't give them any power! It took me a while to trust myself, again, too...but I did and you will, too. Trust me!! You know yourself and you know you're a compassionate person who loves life. Good luck!
Cindy

I can sympathize with all of you. It makes me smile because who would've thought there were so many "doubters" out there. I do think because I am so sensitive and analytical and unfortunately an obessive type personality, it's probably only natural that I would over think my own thoughts. It's actually comical in some ways. Sometimes I frustrate the heck out of myself with my indecisiveness about whether or not I am doubting the nature of my own thoughts. I spoke to a therapist years ago, and she said, Amber, you are always looking for approval. And I responded, Am I? We both got a huge laugh out of this. I guess my advice would be to try and see the humor in our personalities, because it is kind of funny. Just smile, and know that this may be who you are, and that's okay. I think one day we'll all stop trying so hard to do things perfectly and just be ourselves with no apologies. That's a concept.

Good luck to all,
Amber

Thanks, Amber. Wow - I sure can relate to the "over thinking, always looking for approval and trying to be perfect!" Everything you wrote about makes sense. Thanks and my best to you, also.
CindyA

Hi All -

I posted this under the guilt/worry forum, but thought I would post it here also from some advice. Since it pertains to being obsessive and overly analytical.

I started to date someone new. We've been on 5 dates. I'm not sure about him and since it is a long distance relationship, and he lives an hour and 1/2 away there is usually a couple of weeks in between dates. I used to be very shy which I have overcome quite a bit. However, it still comes out while dating.

I'm not sure if I'm not giving this guy a fair chance or he is really not the right guy for me. I'm not sure if this is just my anxiety or my intuition is on track.

I don't feel real attracted to him physically yet and since we are both a little on the quiet side, the personality chemistry is not present (at this time) either.

I keep analyzing this and I don't know what to do. I'd love to feel excited about the relationship, but something feels off to me.

Since he is divorced and has two children he is not available every other weekend. That coupled with the distance is making this even harder.

He seems to be very attracted to me and made some advances the other night when we were together. I went along to a certain point but stopped and didn't let it escalate further.

I told him later on the phone that I needed to take things slow and sent him an email last night to explain further that I think it went further than I was comfortable with. He hasn't emailed me back so now I'm analyzing that. But of course!

I feel very confused...