When you're overwhelmed by negative thinking

[Cat Dancer]

I was reading the Ten Forms of Twisted Thinking and realizing that I do all of those to some degree or another. How do you begin to sort them out and deal with them and confront them? And sometimes it seems like I conquer one negative thought and another comes in and takes over for the one I've gotten rid of. I wonder if this is also part of OCD? Or if having OCD could make it more difficult to combat the negative thinking?

I know therapy can help, but therapy is an hour a week or every two weeks and most of the work has to be done by me in the real every day world. (I don't know if any of this makes sense.)

And maybe it isn't realistic to think I can conquer all (that could be all or nothing thinking) the negative thoughts, but maybe I can try to make them less "noisy" in my head. Maybe the medication will eventually help with this too?

Or maybe I'm analyzing things too much?

 

[Banned]

I know therapy can help, but therapy is an hour a week or every two weeks and most of the work has to be done by me in the real every day world. (I don't know if any of this makes sense.)

Hi Janet,

This makes perfect sense. An hour of therapy every week or two or however often we go is meant to give us the tools to live in the world. We are in therapy because of the instances we encounter in the world, so while therapy will help us figure them out and deal with them, the "test" is outside the therapist's office and you're right - therapy doesn't end when we walk out of the office. In a very real sense, that's when it will begin.

As to how to figure out and deal with twisted thinking - I have to first say I don't know enough about OCD to really speak to it - but for me, it's been a matter of picking one thing and working on it. Now, because I'm a dog trainer I use alot of the same principles on myself. When we're training a new behaviour in a dog, we temporarily relax current behaviours and we train only ONE behaviour at a time. So with myself, if I'm working on something specific, I give myself some slack in other areas until my new behaviour is strong enough, then I pull up my knickers in those other areas as well - to put it all together, so to speak. Also, when I'm training a dog, I ignore all unwanted behaviour, so again, with myself, I pay attention to this and "reward" myself for good behaviour, positive thinking, new insights, etc.

I know I bring dogs into a lot of stuff but hey - it makes the point! Even when I go to therapy, if I'm struggling, she immediately switch it to "If I were a dog what would you say?" or "If you were a dog, what would you think about yourself?"...it just works for me but I hope you can kind of figure out what I'm trying to say....

 

[Cat Dancer]

therapy doesn't end when we walk out of the office. In a very real sense, that's when it will begin.

I think this is so true and what is worrying me so much is that I'm not getting things right there. That I'm misunderstanding everything he's saying to me. It's scary to think that.

As to how to figure out and deal with twisted thinking - I have to first say I don't know enough about OCD to really speak to it - but for me, it's been a matter of picking one thing and working on it. Now, because I'm a dog trainer I use alot of the same principles on myself. When we're training a new behaviour in a dog, we temporarily relax current behaviours and we train only ONE behaviour at a time. So with myself, if I'm working on something specific, I give myself some slack in other areas until my new behaviour is strong enough, then I pull up my knickers in those other areas as well - to put it all together, so to speak. Also, when I'm training a dog, I ignore all unwanted behaviour, so again, with myself, I pay attention to this and "reward" myself for good behaviour, positive thinking, new insights, etc.

This is really good advice. I like the concept of relaxing current behaviours and focusing on one behavior. I think there is probably a tendency to run ahead and want to fix it all at once and it just isn't possible, for dogs too. And the idea of rewarding oneself, I like that too.

I know I bring dogs into a lot of stuff but hey - it makes the point! Even when I go to therapy, if I'm struggling, she immediately switch it to "If I were a dog what would you say?" or "If you were a dog, what would you think about yourself?"...it just works for me but I hope you can kind of figure out what I'm trying to say....

I like the dog stuff. I like dogs. It makes a lot of sense. I wonder if an old dog like me can learn new tricks.