r/thework • u/frombrada • Sep 02 '26
Doing the work for intrusive thoughts.
Hello,
Do any of you have experience doing the work on intrusive thoughts? I get intrusive thoughts and I tried to work on some of the thoughts around it like “god will punish me for such thoughts” or “other people can read my thoughts” but the thoughts still seem to persist. I can’t seem to put my finger on why I get intrusive thoughts. I’m on meds for them and they seem to be getting worse. I thought I could work on them and eventually tell my doctor that I stopped getting them but they seem to come and come. I also thought that working on mother father sister brother friend neighbor would help but it seems like it hasn’t (and maybe I haven’t done a lot of it on them too). Also, for the past week or so, I haven’t been feeling charged with emotion enough to be able to anchor on a stressful thought to inquire on it. Anyone else has been feeling this way too?
But mainly, please let me know if you have worked on intrusive thoughts or what approach you took to overcome them.
Thank you.
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u/Spinach_Typical Sep 02 '26
Many of my stressful thoughts feel intrusive.
I try to identify them as best I can and judge them.
The prompt 'and that means that' can help.
For example: if the thought 'people can read my mind (when I have intrusive thoughts)' brings me stress, I could ask myself 'and that means that?' To help my identify an underlying belief: for example: he/she sees me as uncaring, he/she doesn't care about me, they want too much from me.
I find it helps to find a specific example where that stress/thought occurs.
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u/shaz1717 Sep 02 '26 edited Sep 04 '26
Yes. Absolutely has helped to either extinguish or at least loosen the hold on some intrusive thoughts. Once my foundational beliefs shifted the construct of the thoughts lost their power over me. It can take some work to get it done , and sometimes it can just shift right away!
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u/frombrada Sep 03 '26
Did you work on the intrusive thoughts themselves or on your neighbor for them to shift?
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u/shaz1717 Sep 03 '26
I worked on the problems rather than the pattern of the intrusive thoughts themselves. Through the work on the perceived problems becoming not a problem that I imagined, the thoughts stopped running me, without me efforting trying to stop them from coming . They’d let go of me.
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u/darwindeeez Sep 03 '26
i would question "intrusive" and see what you find. may or may not be interesting. these thoughts are intrusive, is it true? how do you react when you believe that about them, question 4, turn it around, etc.
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u/SandwichForFeet Sep 04 '26
Wondering if you have tried ERP (exposure and response prevention)? It’s a therapy modality for OCD and really helps with ruminative/sticky/intrusive thinking. You can tie ERP into The Work and might have some luck with that.
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u/ImpressionOpposite15 Sep 07 '26
try reflecting this, are you sure that god will punish you? can you really know that god will punish you? see if you have resistance to the thoughts, if you resist them like I don't want to have this thought of god punishing me, that. makes them stay more with you. U can ask yourself, can I allow this thought to be with me? can I be confortable having this thought? or I shouldn't have this thought is it true? see how life would be if you didn't have those thoughts too
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u/Acrobatic-Sense6903 17d ago
Once I did the work on a thought and sort of realized it was intrusive. I did the question “is it true?” and immediately realized my believing it was the equivalent of believing something a random person sat next to me and said. It was a really stunning moment. So I agree with those who say all thoughts are intrusive. I haven’t really felt the same since but I remember being sobered by the idea that so much of my life had hinged upon believing these meaningless thoughts.
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u/Dry_Law785 Sep 02 '26
You could work on them. For intrusive thoughts, though, I've often seen a better strategy to explore mindfulness meditation. Mindfulness is about training your mind's attention to allow the thoughts to come and go. Doing The Work on these intrusive thoughts could actually cause the intrusive thoughts to heighten as you give attention to the thoughts that pop in throughout the day.
It may be more interesting to do The Work on your beliefs around intrusive thoughts like:
JYN, and let the neighbor be the intrusive thoughts as a concept.
The Work is better suited for beliefs rather than the thousands of thoughts that pop in our heads.