Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts _ a CBT-Based Guide to Getting Over Frightening, Obsessive, or Disturbing Thoughts. ( PDFDrive )

22 Overcoming Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts
about an incident initiates the process of trying to fight the thought,
and the ironic process of the mind can take over and increase your
disturbing thoughts dramatically.
So, if a suicidal pilot takes down a plane full of passengers and
your intrusive thoughts have concerned a sudden impulsive suicide
that seems contrary to your own wishes, you might redouble your
efforts to stop the unwanted intrusions. You might even start to hide
ropes and knives, even though you are not actually suicidal.
If you are plagued by thoughts of bad things that could happen
and your need to prepare for them or watch for them— however
unlikely— then reports of rare but scary events, like plane crashes or
shark attacks, can trigger more unwanted thoughts and more
attempts to control those thoughts. Fears of fatal or serious diseases,
like Ebola or AIDS, work in a similar way. You are trying to keep
those thoughts out of your mind, and when the news reports are
filled with descriptions of the disease— and especially the way it can
be transmitted despite rigorous infection control attempts— anxious
distress increases. Then you try to fight the thoughts with even
more effort, and your what- if, stuck thoughts begin to feel more and
more like real possibilities.
And of, course, we are most afraid of things that would be terrible
if they did happen, regardless of how unlikely or even virtually
impossible they may be. This is another time when anxious people
confuse the difference between stakes and odds. So if the stakes are
high (like death, humiliation, or jail), then it really doesn’t seem to
matter how unlikely it might be. And, of course, the media tend to
focus on those events that are awful, dramatic, and traumatic.
There are people who report that they started having unwanted
intrusive thoughts while watching a movie such as The Exorcist or
The Matrix. Here is what usually happens: You are watching the
movie, and, suddenly, out of the blue, you get a terrifying thought
related to the movie that scares the heck out of you. The thought
keeps coming back and triggering more fear, so you become involved
in an ongoing and repeated battle with your thoughts. And, as we
have already said, fighting with your thoughts that way is the same
as handing them a victory.