I have an obsessive compulsive personality type, which to cut to the chase, leaves me predisposed to extremes of negative thinking. In fact, you could describe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder as the 'Mother of All' negative thinking patterns - one that can leave a sufferer trapped in a cyclone of catastrophic thinking.
Take the following example of how an obsessive compulsive mind can take one random negative thought and then elaborate on it until the world itself looks as if it will be lucky to see nightfall:
An OCD Sufferer's Guide to Thinking Negatively
'That person I've just passed coming out of the supermarket didn't look at all well. What if they've got some exotic, incurable disease - maybe Ebola? I've seen Outbreak with Dustin Hoffman
…show more content…
Yes. Silly? Yes. Irrational? Yes. But that obsessive compulsive driven irrationality, of which I am a past master, highlights a vital facet of negative thinking: it's infectious, just like Ebola. And whilst OCD provides an extreme example of the potential of negative thinking, make no mistake we're all prone to the same psychological …show more content…
But if you do take the time to analyse it you'll find that one thought, for example 'that was a horrible thing she did to me' can quickly dredge up a Pandora's box of similar horrible experiences, not just related to that one person or event, but to negative experiences with different scenarios and involving different people throughout your life. And the negative feelings that resultantly arise from those negative thoughts - the anger, resentment, frustration, insecurity or whatever - just add to the explosive mix; spawning their own backlash of distorted negative thoughts in a downward spiral of negativity from which there often feels as if there's no escape.
Quarantine Your Thoughts
But there is an escape: By becoming aware of the separate stages of the above negativity trap you can learn to intervene. Once you appreciate that it's not all an automatic process - that you do have control - you can learn to deprive that initial negative thought of all its destructive, virulent power.
And this is the trick to doing just that:
Don't try to block a negative thought, quarantine
Society deems OCD as a menace and hindrance because of its resulting limitations. However, we start to see it have an effect on success rates within electracy-focused fields. Scientifically, studies suggest that “patients with OCD . . . adapt by accessing explicit networks in order to process material that normal individuals ‘put to rest’ implicitly” (Rauch et al. 572). Which supports the notion that people who suffer from OCD will look at one thing from multiple perspectives, maybe without even realizing it, in order to perfect his or her understanding of it. Although it
ME: A self-defeating emotional pattern is that i have is that i often feel frustrated when doing tests.
Everyone has a monster, no matter how big or small it is, they still have one. You learn how to tame your monster and progress with it and some even know how to overcome their inner monster. My monster is that I second guess and over think many of the decisions I make, no matter how big or small and how significant or insignificant. I also stress over many things. I sometimes think this has to do with my astrological zodiac sign but sometimes think it’s just my nature of life. I was born to be this way. My monster taunts me in my everyday decision from waking up in the morning, to getting dressed, to the work I complete in school, and then coming home, all the way until I go to sleep. Another part of my inner monster is that I get angry or upset if things are done in ways I dislike.
Obsessive-Compulsive disorder is defined in my textbook as a disorder of repetitive, uncontrollable, thoughts or urges that are followed up by repetitive behaviors or mental acts that the person feels compelled to perform. The thing people are often unaware of when talking about obsessive compulsive disorder is that obsessions and compulsions are two totally separate things that happen with this disorder. The obsessions are the thoughts in this disorder defined in the book as intrusive and recurring thoughts, images, or impulses that are persistent and uncontrollable they often feel irrational to the person experiencing them. The compulsions are the behaviors that occur in this disorder defined in the textbook as repetitive, clearly excessive
POLARIZED THINKING - An "all-or-nothing," "good or bad," and "either-or" approach to viewing the world.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, commonly referred to as OCD, is one of the most prevalent personality disorders, affecting more than 2% of the population. The disorder is notable for its preoccupation with orderliness, perfectionism, and mental and interpersonal control at the expense of flexibility, openness, and efficiency. Patterns of OCD develop during early adulthood, and are categorized as either mild or extreme.
One mental health disorder that remains of interest to me would be obsessive compulsive disorder. This ailment causes individuals to compulsively feel the need to repeat a certain task numerous times in a row to halt unwanted thoughts, feelings, ideas or sensations. If someone with OCD fails to relieve this state of mind by completing their task, they often feel immense anxiety and occasionally even physical pain. This is due to the fact that the disorder causes those who suffer from it to believe there will be atrocious consequences to follow if they do not. These tasks can range from feeling the need to constantly wash your hands, touch things in a certain way, organize everything very precisely or counting things repeatedly. When a person caves to the pressure the disorder places on them by carrying out the behaviors to rid themselves from then obsessive thoughts, it only provides
When a negative thought pops into your mind, become aware of it, acknowledge it without judgement, let it be and then notice as it passes. Just as you watch the clouds come and go in the sky, let the negative thoughts come and go in your mind.
Obsessive compulsive disorder is an anxiety disorder in the brain which is distinguished by unaccommodating thoughts and fears termed as obsessions. These obsessions are categorized into two groups described as aggression which entails the fear of harming others and contamination which is the fear of being dirty in relation to sex, religion and exactness. These obsessions can later lead one to commit repetitive behaviors which are termed as compulsions. Compulsions are customs that people believe will reduce their risk of the obsessions coming true, or at least reduce the anxiety they produce. There are various types of compulsion such as washing and cleaning, counting, checking,demanding reassurances, following a strict routine and orderliness.
Many American suffer from mental disorders in fact “about one in four adults — suffer from a diagnosable mental disorder in a given year.” One disorder that is typically seems to be misunderstood and overgeneralized by the general public is obsessive-compulsive disorder. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, otherwise known as OCD is defined as “a type of anxiety disorder characterized by recurrent obsessions, compulsions, or both” (Textbook 574).This disorder is one the most costly, disabling, prevalent of the anxiety disorders (article) It is typically associated with persistent thoughts and ideas such as contamination, aggressive impulses, sexual content, and somatic concerns (health and body), these thoughts can be classified as obsessions. Obsessions are not something the person wants at all typically they are intrusive and uncontrollable and generally go against how they actually feel. Another part of this disorder is the compulsions, which are repeated behavior to neutralize or stabilize the obsessions. To be diagnosed with OCD one must know the behavior is irrational, the behavior must cause impairment to daily life and take up at least an hour per day or more of the person’s time. Some the more typical examples of OCD would consist of a person that one’s hands are filthy even if they have washed them 15 times in the last hour or having to check and make sure that you locked your home repeatedly before you leave. The lifetime prevalence for it is 2 to 3 percent. Onset for
An Obsessive Compulsive Disorder includes four types and they are intrusive thoughts, constant checking, fear of contamination and hoarding. Intrusive thoughts are when a person is tortured with obsessional brain-work that is disquieting and frightening. As a result of intrusive thoughts being disturbing, it becomes an agony. Intrusive thoughts contain relationships, fear of sexual thoughts, magical thinking, religion and violent thoughts. Constant checking is the want to check things constantly and the obsessive of constant checking is the worry of damage or harm. Constant checking is regularly done numerous times a day for hours. Contamination is the requirement to continually wash and clean and contamination is the obsessive terror that can
However, magical thinking can have detrimental effects on health. It is known for people to repeat specific actions to ward off misfortunes; the presence of which would collaborate with the lack of said action. In a clinical sense, this is the anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). This disorder is characterised by thoughts such as fear, worry and horror, often deemed irrational, and thought by the patient to be banished by the combination and completion of one or more compulsive action; hence categorizing the ailment as a form of magical thinking. This cultivates the
The first time I got OCD thoughts was when I was in first grade. At that time I didn’t know that the way I thought was not normal. I used to think that everyone thought the same way as me. However, after a couple of years these thoughts started to get in my way as I tried to do things. For example, when I was trying to do my homework, these thoughts kept distracting me. Over the time these thoughts started to become very distressing and intrusive. The thoughts I had involved: fearing germs, avoiding places that I thought were
Any & all OCD can not do anything bad to me. Any & all OCD can not do anything bad to anything that is me, that is apart of me, or that is connected to me. Any & all OCD can not do anything bad to anyone, anything, anythings, any person, or any people. Any & all OCD can not do bad or make bad happen.
Counterfactual thinking is defined as “the tendency to imagine alternative outcomes for an event, and comes into play especially when something bad has happened (Duff, 2012).” This type of thinking comes automatically and sometimes, a person doesn’t even realize this is happening at the time in which it occurs. Counterfactual thinking can have a negative effect on both a person’s mood and an emotional effect in their thinking process. However, counterfactual thinking can also be useful and be observed in a positive situation. It can sometimes make you feel better about a certain event or situation. For example, a person can imagine the alternative of thinking that if they had arrived on time and gotten on the first bus, they would have been involved in the bus accident. That person would use counterfactual thinking to say “what could have been,” thereby, giving a sigh of relief because he’s grateful to not have been on that particular bus that day.