Interrupt Your Anxious Thought Patterns
Thoughts can influence our feelings, actions, relationships, and essentially every aspect of our life as human beings. One of my favorite quotes is from Buddha, which states, “What you think, you become.” This simple concept is meant to empower us as people knowing that we can achieve anything we imagine for ourselves. On the other side of this notion, when our thoughts are supporting a negative bias of ourselves or the world around us, it feels daunting to sit with our thoughts.
Within the context of psychology there are many different categories of cognitions including worry thoughts, rational thoughts, critical thinking, obsessive thoughts, decision making, positive thinking, and so much more. I often get asked by clients, “Is this a normal thought?” and it can be hard to conceptualize that statement at times. It’s important to understand that the normalcy of a thought depends on the situation at hand, but ultimately that you view it from a place of understanding.
Over the years, with personal and professional experience, I have noticed that our thoughts typically fall on a spectrum of stress responses and may not always correlate with an Anxiety Diagnosis. The list below is only focusing on stress-related thoughts to better gauge the intensity of your current thought patterns:
Worry thoughts: Typically are a normal cognitive response to a stressful situation in life, but it can become persistent and uncontrollable. Some examples of worry thoughts may include:
“What if I miss my appointment in the morning?”
“Am I going to lose my job?”
“I don’t think I’ll be able to pay my bills this month.”
Anxious thoughts: Often focus on the uncertainty of something in the future happening or not happening. Our brain register these thoughts as potential threats to our safety, leading to panic attacks at times. Examples of anxious thoughts include:
“I am never going to make friends at my new job.”
“If I miss my flight, then Christmas will be ruined.”
“What if this bruise keeps getting worse and I have to get my leg amputated?”
Intrusive thoughts: These are thoughts which are not desired, but persist in one’s mind creating anxiety and distress. These often occur as OCD symptoms and cause great discomfort. Some examples of intrusive thoughts include:
“What if I drove my car off the road right now?”
“I wonder if they are just pretending to like me.”
“If I don’t unplug the toaster (even though it’s off) before I leave, then my family will burn in a fire I started.”
Normal thoughts: A range of thought processes that are simply part of being human. Most thoughts fall into the normal category such as stressing about finances, making decisions about new home furniture, thinking about past mistakes, or trying to make sense of a challenging situation. Some examples of normal thoughts may include:
“I should brush my teeth before bed.”
“I hope that my friend likes this new scarf I got her.”
“How can I get better at staying organized?”
The goal of labeling these different types of thoughts is to help you increase awareness of your own patterns of cognitive tendencies. If you experience an intrusive thought occasionally without it causing issues in your daily functioning, then that means you are human. If you are noticing immense difficulty redirecting your anxious or worry thoughts, feeling the need to engage in a compulsive behavior to alleviate your discomfort, or struggling to fall asleep because of racing thoughts then it would be beneficial to reach out to a professional therapist for further guidance.
Whether a thought is “right or wrong” or even “bad or good” is determined by your approach to handling the thought that is surfacing. Our brains can produce lots of irrational thoughts, but it’s essential that we learn how to navigate towards making those thoughts appear rational in our actions that follow.
There are a handful of therapeutic techniques that address how to regain control of our worry thoughts and feel more confident when a stressor surfaces in our life. I don’t have the space to detail out each approach without causing confusion or harm for you as a reader. These skills are not a one-size-fits-all for people struggling with anxiety or negative thoughts, and it’s important to try a handful of different methods to figure out which works best within your brain functioning.
Moreover, a great place to get started is by beginning to track what your thoughts are on a daily basis. Begin noticing the patterns within the context of your thoughts. Oftentimes, we become fused with our thought patterns that it alters the way we engage in all aspects of life. When we fuse with a thought, it makes us feel stuck and unable to focus on anything else. When we explore ways to defuse from our thought patterns, we work to break free from this trap. These techniques help by shifting attention from the content of thoughts to the process of thinking, ultimately loosening the hold thoughts have over you.
If you are also struggling with worry thoughts and seeking reassurance from your friends, family, or the internet, try using this comparison chart below to shift that perspective some. It’s a helpful tool to stop an internet rabbit hole spiral and build traits that align with being an information-seeker versus a reassurance-seeker.
A reassurance-seeker:
Repeatedly asks the same question
Asks questions to feel less anxious
Insists on absolute, definitive answers whether appropriate or not
An information-seeker:
Asks the question once
Asks the questions to be informed
Accepts relative, qualified, or uncertain answers when appropriate
*Adapted from Anxiety Disorders Center, St. Louis Behavioral Medicine Institute
As I mentioned earlier in this blog, it’s important to view yourself and your thoughts from a place of understanding. I wanted to add in how essential it is to practice self-acceptance and self-trust when challenging your anxious or intrusive thought patterns.
It takes time to change how our brain operates. We are literally working to rewire our brain in a way that does not feel so consuming with our identity. When we are self-accepting, we are able to separate our negative thoughts from our true self. I can have a random intrusive thought that says, “I am not a good therapist. I am not feeling productive today with my clients.” But when I use my coping skills to defuse from that shame-based thinking and challenge that thought, I am able to see a broader perspective that I am going to have bad days and to trust myself as a clinician.
It’s a learning curve to trust yourself and stop believing every worry thought that surfaces. It feels impossible sometimes to tackle these cognitive distortions on your own and it can be healthy to have an informed perspective to help you feel more confident managing your thoughts. We cannot control the thoughts that surface, but we can control how much time or energy we spend in believing those thoughts.
Reach out today if interested in interrupting your anxious thoughts and learning how to trust your decisions in life!
