We all have obtrusive thoughts in our lifetime, by which I mean, a thought that seems to pop into your head, which is negative and can be extremely frightening. Commonly for many people it is about hurting themselves or other people that they love, disgusting sexual acts or going insane. These thoughts aren't actually what the individual likes to think about, or wants to do, but is something that they greatly fear. People can go to serious lengths to avoid putting themselves in a position that could make them carry out these horrible thoughts they have. For example, if someone was constantly worrying they may snap and harm themselves, they may avoid having knives in their house.
So for me, my personal obtrusive thoughts are about going insane. Losing my mind. Being carted off. Breaking the hearts of those I love. Never being the same person again. It's pretty overwhelming at times. Now when I'm not feeling particularly anxious, I can look at those thoughts and almost laugh. But when I am feeling anxious......wow, I 100% believe them. It's very bizarre.
It's hard for me to understand that this is a by product of anxiety as the thoughts are terrifying. And I mean terror. You know that feeling when you feel like your being followed on a dark night alone? Or that someone's in your house?! That kind of terror. And it can strike randomly, when you thought you was all comfy and chilled out. Because it does strike so randomly, I think it fuels the obtrusive thoughts tenfold. It reinforces the ideas that you have about yourself, thus making it 100000x more frightening, and then repeating the cycle. Oh joy.
There are plenty of things that can also trigger these thoughts off, for me personally there is bloody loads, I'll list a few!
- seeing shadows
- seeing bright lights/reflections
- hearing whispery type noises
- mishearing people
- thinking people are speaking too quietly/loudly
- cold gusts of air when I'm indoors
- getting too excitable, then energy crashing
- Physical symptoms to which include, dizziness, headaches, tingling, numbness in limbs, tight chest
- watching anything to do with mental health
- feeling foggy or like I'm distant from reality
- talking/thinking about the paranormal
There's plenty more, but I can't think of them all to list them! Basically it's all things that happen every day that seemingly have started to frighten me to death! If any of those things happen, I start to feel those familiar feelings of panic, which makes me start thinking about what is happening to me, to then questioning my sanity. It's exhausting!!!!
Anxiety will not kill me. But it can scare the shit out of me! Sometimes even thinking about it all makes me feel so overwhelmed and that I'm swirling
around, as though I was being sucked and swirled down a plug hole.
around, as though I was being sucked and swirled down a plug hole.
The reality is that it is me creating my own fear. For this cycle to end, I need to become more rational, to realise I really am not in any danger, the likelihood of me going mental is so small. However silly this may seem to some people reading this, at the time it is happening to me, it's extremely real and horrifying.
I'd like more people to be aware of just how common this is, and to really stop beating themselves up about it. It affects so many more people than I initially realised. This makes me sad :(
So......what's causing this? What started it? I think it's a reflection of your life in general. Things are wrong, things are missing, things need to be fixed and changed. I think I've started to work out what these issues are for me, but for now I'd like to keep those private. You can't know all my insecurities, that makes me vulnerable! Ha!
Secondly I think everybody needs a focus and a drive. It turns out I had neither. So I'm working on that too. I'll update on that in future when it's reached it's turnaround point.
It's a battle, it's a struggle. I constantly think, "why me?!" I thought I had the acceptance part down to a T.......clearly not. Accepting it's me, it's never going to be easy!
X
Thank you for your post. I found it very comforting to know that you have felt as I have felt. I too am working on it. So here's to both of us coming through this struggle successfully!!
ReplyDeleteThank you for your post. I found it very comforting to know that you have felt as I have felt. I too am working on it. So here's to both of us coming through this struggle successfully!!
ReplyDelete