How to Cope with Intrusive Thoughts

·         Recognize that you may have had worry thoughts before becoming highly anxious, but they now have a magnified meaning because of your anxiety. Accept this.

·         Learn all about how adrenaline affects your anxious state. To understand is half the battle.

·         Look on this as nothing more than anxiety trickery or the bluff of anxiety.

·         Change your reaction to “no reaction”, not in the fearful sense at least. As ridiculous as it sounds, try to learn to smile at these thoughts. Know that to give them no importance can break the chain of producing yet more adrenaline, by way of the anxiety they produce.

·         Don’t fight the thoughts. Let them be there, quietly and with as much nonchalance as you can muster. Accept willingly and give them permission to be there.

·         Engage in normal activity as much as possible when you have accepted the thought. Distraction will not work alone but will merely put off the inevitably of repetition. A nod of acceptance and then moving on with activity is the best way forward. Only you will know if you are truly accepting.

·         Tell yourself that you are in control and your intrusive thoughts only mean something if you give them importance.