Idk what to do
I been having these on and off weird thoughts that keep bothering me for the past 2 weeks.
Let’s say for example I would be watching a show or movie. This is weird, but if a character in a show or movie suddenly says they have an illness, I would automatically think of what it’s like for one of my family members or friends to have it and constantly think “ ___ has ___ illness” repeatedly knowing it’s not going to happen but I’m afraid it will manifest and don’t know how to stop these thoughts.
These thoughts only come up when I hear something that could cause the worst case scenario to somebody and it’s really causing me stress and so much anxiety. I know it’s a weird thing but I just don’t ever want to have this problem again. Idk what to do please help!.
@SY920
Hi SY, I can understand how it feels to have such troubling thoughts which are giving you stress and anxiety. Its good that you came to 7cups & I hope you get some help to deal with these disturbing thoughts.
Have you heard about automatic thoughts or thinking mistakes? You can try to read about them & try to see if you can associate with them. Also you can consider going through the self help guide on Anxiety available on 7cups (https://www.7cups.com/anxiety-help/). This guide also explains about automatic thoughts & thinking mistakes & also gives some coping techniques to deal with these thoughts.
You can also consider connecting with trained active listeners on this platform, you can use browse listener page to search for listener using different available filters like chat topic, gender, language, country etc. Here is the list of Listeners who have some own experinece of dealing with anxiety (https://www.7cups.com/BrowseListeners/?badge=&find=&sort=&ageGroup=&listType=listener&country=&category=16&gender=&language=&livedExperience=on)
I hope this platform helps you to feel better. Take care
@SY920
So, this sounds similar to something I do called catastrophizing. It's where my mind will take any scenario and immediately spiral into all the negative possibilities that could happen. What you could try to do is (if you catch yourself doing this), try to shock your system. I use ice. The cold in my mouth helps distract me from all the spiraling thoughts. I can't really suggest any other methods other than try to logically go through the scenarios, but rationalization doesn't always work, especially in my case. I hope this could help you in some way :)
we humans get distracted very quickly and the situation you mentioned is one of such situation where its a distraction for us which makes us think about such situations. But in reality its only a staged thing nothing to do with our life.
Please try some breathing exercises, some meditation to keep yourself calm and strong. you need to collect all your inner energies and maintain positivity inside.