5 Ways to Free Yourself From Dark and Obsessive Thoughts

Stuck thoughts. Painful ruminations. Unrelenting obsessions. They are the curse of depression — among the most excruciating symptoms, in my opinion. “When a child gets lost, he may feel sheer terror,” explains Byron Katie in her bestseller Loving What Is. “It can be just as frightening when you’re lost inside the mind’s chaos.” I can usually gauge the severity of my depression based on the intensity and frequency of my stuck thoughts. Sometimes they can outright debilitate me. One seemingly benign thought — often a rumination about a decision I have made in the past, a regret of one form or another, or sometimes something that makes no sense at all — is packed with panic and plays over and over again in my mind, keeping me awake at night and besieging me with anxiety during the day. More than any other symptom of my depression — more so even than unrestrained tears and bawling my eyes out in public — the stuck thoughts make me feel truly insane, scared to be living inside my body and mind. In my post 9 Ways to Let Go of Stuck Thoughts, I offer some tools to deal with obsessions. But since I’ve been imprisoned by this insanity as of late, I thought I’d share more of them with you that have helped me escape, if only for a few minutes, to a place of peace. 1. Rely on Other Brains In the state of severe rumination, your brain is toast. You have to fully admit that — it’s the first step of most 12-step programs. You can’...
Source: World of Psychology - Category: Psychiatry & Psychology Authors: Tags: Bipolar Depression Mental Health and Wellness Self-Help Depressive Episode Emotional Support grief Psychology Rumination Sadness Suicide Source Type: blogs