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

by Sally M. Winston PsyD

Struggling the way you have, you have probably discovered a very frustrating and important truth. Trying to keep thoughts out of your mind doesn’t work for you. It doesn’t work for anybody.

Mindfulness is a state of open and active attention to the present, moment by moment. It involves the experience of observing your thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment or evaluation.

Sensitization can be compared to an allergy. An allergic person has a strong reaction to substances that cause little response in others.

This is another time when anxious people confuse the difference between stakes and odds.