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

by Sally M. Winston PsyD

Fear-Increasing Cycle Let’s look more closely at how your inner voices work in the brain. First, remember that all three voices (Worried Voice, False Comfort, and Wise Mind) reside in the thinking part of your brain—the cortex. None of your voices have any role in the creation of the first whoosh of fear—what we call first fear. However, all three characters feel the whoosh of first fear. True to form, Worried Voice is always duped. It believes immediately that where there is whoosh, there is danger. It does not cross Worried Voice’s mind that most alarms are false alarms and that there are comparatively few real emergencies in life. Worried Voice automatically takes every alarm seriously whether it sounded in response to a creak in the attic, a skip of the heartbeat, or an intrusive thought. Every time Worried Voice thinks of something else that could be amiss, the amygdala sends out another alarm. And, as long as Worried Voice asks the “What if (fill in something awful) is happening?” question, your amygdala continues to produce whooshes of fear. As soon as this happens, False Comfort steps forward to try to silence Worried Voice. False Comfort tries by minimizing, pretending, explaining away, calming, and making a plan “just in case.” But this only confirms for Worried Voice that the alarm was legitimate and needs to be dealt with. As we pointed out earlier, when False Comfort engages Worried Voice, then Worried Voice raises what-ifs once again. There is no getting away...