Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts: A CBT-Based Guide to Getting Over Frightening, Obsessive, or Disturbing Thoughts

by Sally M. Winston PsyD

your amygdala sets off the alarm in response to a harmless thought, you get a false alarm of danger: the bell clangs, you get an instant whoosh of fear, and it is very easy to think that there is real danger.