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

by Sally M. Winston PsyD

Myth 8: Every Thought Is Worth Thinking Myth 8 is that every thought is worth thinking about, so it makes sense to and it is worthwhile to explore the content of any thought that crosses your mind or comes to your attention. Fact: The fact is that you, like cable TV, have many different channels of thought going through your mind at the same time. It is impossible to think about them all, and some of your channels are just full of junk (like maybe the infomercial channel or the local high school announcements). Not all are worthwhile to think about. Imagine that you are listening to your radio and something went wrong, so instead of listening to one station at a time, you were listening to two, three, five, or ten at once. One channel might be great music that you want to hear; another might be an absorbing discussion. Others might be a boring repeat newscast, a song that you hate, and a story that you have heard a hundred times before. Without giving it much thought, you would work to focus on the things that seemed interesting and let the other channels pass you by.