Cure your panic attacks and bad thoughts with “think through”

So if all your feelings stem from your thoughts you might want to start sorting out what you are thinking about.

Are you thinking thoughts that are creative and healthy?

Most likely the answer to that question is: NO, otherwise you wouldn’t’ be reading this blog. Perhaps you already know that you should be thinking positive thoughts but your brain just won’t allow it. Fair enough.

So if you are stuck in a bad thought pattern how do you break out of it?

You are going to have to start reasoning with your brain. It’s not very easy to begin with but you will soon get the hang of it.

So how do we start?

Well first we must think through our thoughts – often a panicked person get stuck in one line of thought. For example “I might get poisoned if I eat an apple without washing it” the thought pattern for an anxious or panicked person looks like this: I’m going to get poisoned from eating that apple, I have already touched it and maybe it’ll go through my fingers into my bloodstream and then I will get poisoned, I’ll probably will panic about it, ok, now I am panicking, shit I might have got poisoned already, I am feeling a bit funny, I wonder what it is, It’s the intoxication coming, I’m going to get poisoned, I can feel it, I’m getting poisoned. And on it goes.

What about if we changed that line of thought to this:

I’m going to get poisoned from eating that apple. Ok, so I think I am going to get poisoned from eating that apple. Did I eat the apple? Yes. How big is the likelihood of someone getting poisoned from eating that apple without washing it? Very small as apples are made to be eaten. What if I still get poisoned? Well I have to go to hospital. OK. So then what? I will probably feel really bad and have like a panic attack when I go. Ok so then what. That would be really bad. Maybe, but will it kill me? NO. Ok then, so I am going to feel shit for a few hours and then it will go away. Is that the end of the world? No. Alright then what was I worrying about in the first place.

This is an example of thinking trough a thought pattern and not getting stuck in “what if I get poisoned”. Anxious people often fail to see the big picture and need some help in sorting out their thoughts to be able to see that.
The first step to getting anxiety free is to think through your thoughts the faster you can take care of your bad thoughts the faster you can start thinking good thoughts.

This was the first think lesson in the series: Cure your panic attacks by nailing your bad thoughts ass!

Check back tomorrow for another tip!

Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway 8-CD set: Dynamic Techniques for Turning Fear, Indecision, and Anger into Power, Action, and Love is a good book/CD-set on how to do start thinking with better control. Susan Jeffers describes the matter in easy terms and if you do the exercises they really make a difference on your thinking patterns. She talks about our chattering monkey… that voice inside our head that makes us think bad thoughts, and how to shut it up!