YOU ARE NOT ALONE - A companion online community discussion board for The Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast with Paul Gilmartin

Hi all...

I'm really struggling now with unwanted thoughts. My brain is constantly telling me that I'm a really bad person and that I should kill myself. Or that cutting myself is a really good idea, even though I don't want to kill myself. I'm sure you all understand how aggravating this is while trying to keep up good performance at work, and not lettting it drive you crazy.

I am taking medication. Zoloft usually works very well at keeping these thoughts from breaking out of the playpen, but it's not working so well at the moment and now they're swinging from the chandeliers. I took an Ativan an hour ago to help with anxiety. Now I feel dopey. Yaaayyyy...

My Psychiatrist is suggesting I reframe the thoughts in terms of unwelcome guests, not arbiters of reality, etc. How exactly does one do that? Right now I feel like I'm the guest in their world and not the other way around. I really hate my brain. I hate what it does sometimes.

Has anyone successfully done the reframing of unwanted thoughts?

My Psychiatrist is suggesting I reframe the thoughts in terms of unwelcome guests

Have you read anything about mindfulness? Thich Nhat Hanh's The Miracle of Mindfulness is a good way to start, and mindfulness meditation has been incorporated into cognitive behavioral therapy and DBT.

The reason I mention it is I think it was that book that talked about unwanted thoughts popping into your head while meditating, and you are supposed to think of your mind as a hallway with doors on either end, and if those negative thoughts walk in the door, just let them be. Don't try to keep them out, don't grab onto them, just let them walk in, walk down the hallway and walk back out. The thoughts aren't you, and you can't necessarily control or prevent them, but you don't have to grab onto them either. Maybe that's what he meant, and maybe that image will be helpful to you. Good luck.

...you are supposed to think of your mind as a hallway with doors on either end, and if those negative thoughts walk in the door, just let them be. Don't try to keep them out, don't grab onto them, just let them walk in, walk down the hallway and walk back out.

That's very helpful. I'll have to try that once the Ativan wears off and I have thoughts again.

DemureEccentric,

I agree with Weary. When I feel thoughts or impulses come up that make me uncomfortable or that I'm tired of dealing with, I try to observe myself experiencing them instead of judging myself for experiencing them. I look at them like a rain shower in my brain. I don't blame clouds for raining. I don't blame my brain for imagining.

Actions and thoughts are two different realms. There are few things as wasteful and damaging as blaming ourselves for the thoughts that pop into our heads or the reaction our bodies have to them.

Paul