How can you stop your crazy-making thoughts...

Does anyone have any ideas or suggestions for me as to how to stop my incessant thought patterns...I just feel like I am totally losing it today... Meditating not helping today... maybe I just need to keep trying, however. Not sure.
Sometimes I cry and that helps for awhile...
For awhile I was doing so much better...but this is more than just 'morning anxiety'... I feel so lost and scared today like I'm never going to get past this. Sometimes I feel like I am going to 'freeze in place.'

It's much like when someone tells you NOT to think of purple elephants! All of a sudden, that seems to be all you can think of!

Of the many Resources available to us, I find distraction to be one component of a powerful combination. Sure, we cannot stuff our thoughts down and ignore them or pretend they don't have an effect.

But if the thoughts are unproductive and irrelevant, utilize methods of engaging both your mind and body in something that requires a lot of concentration. The more time you spend "not" thinking about those thoughts, the easier it becomes.







M.

Hey Bettsann,

I know exactly what you mean, you have learnt these destructive thought patterns and now you have to learn new more positive ones which takes time but you can do it. First of all you have to notice when you are thinking negatively and when you do, just try to replace that thought with a more positive one which is more empowering to you.

I have let anxiety and depression stop me from doing so many things I used to do because I felt uncomfortable and just wanted to stay in my room and sleep and I realise that I have to force myself to get out and do things even though it will feel uncomfortable at first but you will feel better for it. Anxiety for me has honestly made me feel on many occasions like I was going mad or that I was going to just stop thinking logically one day but that is just one of it's many tricks.

You are going to be okay :)

See that's the best thing just get involved with stuff you can lose yourself in and you will be okay.

I have lost touch of all the times I though I was going crazy but I am still here right now pretty much as sane as ever lol it is just fear.

If you was actually going crazy then you would not even know about it either :)

This is great advice.

I never thought I would enjoy truly living alone but I found I love it. However, I must stay involved or I start to feel odd and crazy creeps in...

The trick for me is to create things that fill my time and provide good distractions. Browsing ebay, pinterest, working on art, posting in various forums, being a forum moderator, working my business from home is a wonderful consuming distraction, and every night I try to watch a new/unseen movie, documentary or series to unwind and lose myself in the visual and mental story of it. I try to use the internet to teach me things, there are a ton of online courses and classes you can watch from very well known universities, I spent a couple years enhancing my vocabulary by writing poetry.

For me, keeping my mind occupied at all times is important.

Spending TOO much time at home has been an issue, so I made a bucket list and filled it with a lot of REALISTIC things to do, so I would be able to cross a lot of things off my list and feel as if I make progress. I made lists for things to do around town, things to do in my area of the state, things to do at home, stuff like that. I did add some challenges, to help me start to deal with things like my travel anxiety (going to far/unfamiliar places and fearing I will get so lost I won't get home, and YES I am buying a GPS soon and getting a internet phone too which will take away most all THAT fear! But I wanted to try without the easy devices too).

So far, so good, baby steps works so well in facing fears.

I plan on trying groups again though I am one of those who can be the life of the party, but I really like "deeper" more meaningful conversations with fewer people, so it's hard for me to make friends (I am also single and have no kids or grand kids, so that makes me atypical of most my age).

Groups like amateur astronomer monthly star parties, things where we are DOING things as a group is easy to manage.... I want to try a silent retreat at a Buddhist center too.

When it comes to anxiety and how to manage?

I signed up at e-couch (link at the top of this forum, I believe), wonderful CBT program you can keep track of, reminding myself of the things I CAN control and those I cannot (those freak me the most, like my current real potential health scare, but today I am having a sort of ok day), I understand not everyone likes drugs: I am anti drug and always have been, but discovered xanax gets me over the terrible times (just my opinion and experience here), calling up one dear friend who is more phobic than me and he does the same when we are freaking out, annnnnd...

Reading & posting at forums like this!!!!