Anxienty and negative thoughts

[ades]

Hello! I am Ades and I am 25 years old. I have anxienty and I worry too much. I am a sensitive girl but this time I feel that I am becoming too sensitive and if someone makes jokes with me I feel bad and want to cry. When I hear bad news such as someone who has commited suicide or murder I feel really bad , my hands swet, my heart pounds and in my mind comes lots of negative thought such as: What if I do the same thing if harm myself or kill someone? I dont want to and I have never done that but I struggle woth my thoughts. I panic when I think about these negative thoughts. I am seeing a therapist now but I wont your opinion. Has any of you experienced such negative thoughts and what did you do yo keep your mind occupied with positive thoughts? Thank you

[SeaStar723]

Hi. I've had self harm in the back of my head but I've always been too scared to do it so the fear or pain helps in stopping it. I learned to play the guitar quite a few years back and singing and playing, particularly happy or sappy, songs really help.

[ades in reply to SeaStar723]

Thank you for sharing. Yes doing activities is helpful

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[GoldStarHero]

Hi Ades,

I understand your fear here. First - you are not alone. Do not feel strange because of your worry. I too have fears that are similar and many times i feel terrible just for worrying...about the worry.

Secondly, talking to someone is very helpful. I am sure they will be able to help you through the the worrisome thoughts. From my experience, I have discovered that we naturally have a "self negative bias" as in, we are always trying to find the worst of a situation. That is why many times when we see terrible things in the news or on social media, we tend to ruminate on the "what if". It's almost as if we are trying to protect ourselves by mentally hurting ourselves.

I am not a licensed professional - but have dealt with anxiety and depression for a number of years. When negative thoughts enter our brains from content we must allow the content to be, but remain "aware of the now". This is a tip from Eckhart Tolle who I recommend you check out (YouTube videos or books). Embracing the content without allowing it to transform our brains is like an art or a muscle that we can continually practice and work with to switch the dial from negative to ineffective to positive. Think of the content as simply existing by focusing on the "now" not on the "what if".

Hopefully that helps - best of luck. You will be able beat the anxiety

[ades in reply to GoldStarHero]

Thank you .I feel better knowing that there are people that have experienced the same situation. I appreciate your encouragement. I talked with my sister about my worries and is a relief knowing that she understands me becouse at first I was afraid what is she going to think am I insane. Thank you a lot again

[Hidden]

Hi, just chiming in about keeping yourself busy. Maybe try looking up "coping techniques" online. Positive activities are good, listening to music or watching a show with the opposite emotion, exercising, walking around stores, talking with friends about other things, etc. Also I always thought therapeutic coloring was super lame, but it's been helpful for me lately when I need to distract myself.

That's not to say I'm good at any of this - somehow I still end up stuck with these feelings - but knowing what you like to do and identifying those things, maybe you (and myself) can slowly motivate yourself to do them more and more.

[ades in reply to Hidden]

Thank you. The same thing said my psycotherapist that I have to keep myself busy doing sth getting a job or sth else. I have worked as an english teacher but I quited 2 moths ago bcs of some problems that happened with the headmaster. He was a bad person and this discouraged me and I thought I will not start another job till I feel better. Now I am helping my church with some preparations for VBS and it makes me feel good.

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