Intrusive thoughts would give me major anxiety when I was younger, and I forget where I learned it from, but one of the strategies I used to help me with them was to mock them.
It can be applied to many negative thoughts as a way to partially dispell or demystify them. Provide some distancing from them. Detangle the thoughts from being an assumed immutable part of one’s personality.
Yeah, it’s super effective! For anyone curious about trying it, you’re basically trying to take that voice you hear and take away the feeling it gives you by modifying the different aspects of it. So like if you feel that voice coming from over your shoulder, move it to the tip of a finger or beyond. Then, if it’s the voice of your mom, make it sound like SpongeBob or Goofy. If it’s super loud, make it quiet and timid. Experiment, play around with it. If it’s got a color, turn it grey. If it’s got a shape, smoosh it. Etc. And if you need to visualize yourself a mechanism or story to make that manipulation happen, fucking go wild. The brain is all about narratives and storytelling is a kind of mental magick.
Intrusive thoughts would give me major anxiety when I was younger, and I forget where I learned it from, but one of the strategies I used to help me with them was to mock them.
YoU sHoUlD JumP OvEr ThiS RaILinG.
This is a great technique!
It can be applied to many negative thoughts as a way to partially dispell or demystify them. Provide some distancing from them. Detangle the thoughts from being an assumed immutable part of one’s personality.
Yeah, it’s super effective! For anyone curious about trying it, you’re basically trying to take that voice you hear and take away the feeling it gives you by modifying the different aspects of it. So like if you feel that voice coming from over your shoulder, move it to the tip of a finger or beyond. Then, if it’s the voice of your mom, make it sound like SpongeBob or Goofy. If it’s super loud, make it quiet and timid. Experiment, play around with it. If it’s got a color, turn it grey. If it’s got a shape, smoosh it. Etc. And if you need to visualize yourself a mechanism or story to make that manipulation happen, fucking go wild. The brain is all about narratives and storytelling is a kind of mental magick.