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

by Sally M. Winston PsyD

We become entangled with thoughts when we take their message at face value. If we can see their message as junk, then it is much easier to ignore the content of the thought and focus instead on the meaning behind the content. If this seems difficult, then let’s start with an example that we all know very well, which is from Dave Carbonell (2016), who has authored several self-help books on panic and worry (and hosts the popular website AnxietyCoach.com). Imagine that you open the following e-mail addressed to you: Congratulations! This is your lucky day. Your third cousin twice removed, who was the head of the [insert foreign country] Diamond Industry, has died and left $14 billion dollars to you. In order to collect this inheritance, please click on this link and provide us with your bank routing number. We will immediately transfer into your account the sum of $14 billion dollars. Again, accept our sincere congratulations. Would you start excitedly imagining what it would be like to buy your own yacht, own your own private jet, or buy your own island? (We hope not, of course.) Because the words in this communication are not to be believed. The content is immaterial. This is a scam, and not an inheritance notice. When you push the “send to spam” button, you have already disentangled yourself from the content of the e-mail. You have no problem buying the idea that the words should not be believed, and the e-mail is communicating a very different message: “Send me your mone...