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

by Sally M. Winston PsyD

Thoughts stick because of the energy you expend to fight them.

Suffering about unwanted intrusive thoughts is a disorder of overcontrol, not undercontrol. (Undercontrol disorders are sometimes known as impulsivity.) Disorders of overcontrol are usually accompanied by a problem with doubt or uncertainty. Put the two together—trying to control those things that you cannot control (in this case, your thoughts) and wanting to be absolutely, 100 percent sure that nothing bad will happen—and you have the formula for unwanted intrusive thoughts.

A thought is not a fact or a statement about yourself. Character is about the choices you make in life, not what pops into your mind.

The suffering over your thoughts actually lies in the way you evaluate them and react to them, not the content of the thoughts themselves.

Maximum learning requires an open, passive, curious attitude of attention.