September 25, 2025 • 26 mins
Welcome to the second episode of the series on #IntrusiveThoughts.
We explore how intrusive thoughts, images, urges and memories may pop in your mind and how they impact your mood.
Today we focus on intrusive thoughts and #OCD #GAD #Panic.
We always end the podcast with a brief meditation, hope you enjoy it.
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Jaime
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:02):
Hello and welcome again to the mental health and well-being
CBT, AMDR and Beyond podcast. I am Jaime and I am a therapist
and director of the online therapy clinic.
Today we're going to go through a podcast on that follows up
from the previous podcast on intrusive thoughts and how they
(00:26):
look like and so on. I enjoyed the last podcast, some
of nice comments and a nice for that e-mail.
So I appreciate what we are going to do today.
We're going to be talking about intrusive thoughts in OCD, in
generalized anxiety disorder andfamily, so on.
(00:47):
So what? As we said, intrusive thoughts
are the norm and that is the main message.
I want everyone who is listeningto take from this.
I want you people to realise theintrusive thoughts is what we
all experience. Research says 80 to 90% I
believe is human nature because we all have brains and we all
(01:08):
think. And then what we're going to do
is we're going to be talking today about intrusive thoughts
on OCD that and bad. So let's start so intrusive
thoughts, inocity and thoughts images ages that can vary from
(01:29):
violent, sexual, religious, blasphemous, contamination,
illness related moral themes, paedophilia themes.
There'll be a wide variety of intrusions and there is some
some research where they gave 6 domains of them and that is very
(01:56):
important to know that this is what what are very are so common
that we can exploit them in domains.
OK, So what we know is that unlike other intrusive thoughts,
or unlike fleeting thoughts thatjust pop, pop, pop, these
obsessive thoughts, they persist, they feel sticky, they
(02:18):
increase your distress. They go beyond the initial
appearance of a simple sort of thought.
OK, what happens is that some people experience thoughts after
a event. So some examples, let's say
childbirth, some people might still have intrusive thoughts
(02:41):
about the dangers of a child. They may or may never have
thoughts before. Some people may be accused of
something or some people may have some point wish somewhere
in harm and that did happen and that that could lead all such
(03:02):
intrusive thoughts. These can be from early
childhood. They these people, some people
that report to have them from the age very young, age 345
years old, they remember the thoughts.
There is some research, some theories, some suggestions that
(03:22):
these are sometimes biological factors that are due to
illnesses. There are new life experiences,
there are some family history ofintrusive thoughts.
So there are very odd reasons. And one of the things that
people keep asking, why do I have intrusive thoughts?
(03:43):
How can I get rid of them? How can they stop?
It's a very, it's a question that many people ask and there
is a lot of research out there how it may happen, how
hypothetically these intrusive thoughts happen and ultimately
there is no actual answer. As per today and as per my
(04:04):
knowledge, there is no answer ofwhy we all have industry
thoughts. My take is going to be we have
minds. Minds think and they think what
they want and sometimes they areuncontrollable, They are
persistent, they are against ourvalues and they keep coming
(04:24):
back. They stick around so it's not an
actual answer with this thought,intrusive thoughts come up and
getting having more answered, having more asked when it's
around OCD than other difficulties.
OK, So what happens is that we can also have the surges we
(04:44):
explain and in OCD, well then the intrusive thought is against
our moral code, our our, our persons, our values.
And what that leads is to have distress and a ego dystonic
(05:08):
sense. So I don't want the thoughts.
They're not here. They are, they're here.
Why are they coming and so on. And that becomes a, a chain or
a, a cycle. What then happens is that
sometimes people have intrusive thoughts and they are in the
mind and they go along with lifeand they don't impact them and
some other impact. What some people have noticed is
(05:33):
that whether it's society or anyof the other things we're going
to go through later on, these thoughts, they start, they get
triggered, they get prompted by news, social media, listening of
others thoughts, inappropriate thoughts that we have that they
(05:57):
might not be. And then this, the obsession
starts. What is the difference with OCD
or what is happened with OCD is that there is the the ritual
Austria, there is the compulsions.
Both can be approaching or avoiding.
So it tends to be more approaching.
However, there is a lot of people trying to avoid thinking
about things, trying to block things.
(06:18):
And that's what what also will lead to the intrusions to come
up more and more and more. What happens with OCD?
He says the more we try to fightthose thoughts, the more we're
trying to not have them push them away, not pay attention,
the more likely they're going tokeep coming back.
(06:38):
So that is from the point of view of intrusive thoughts in
our city. OK.
And like I said, they, they, they will come up down the nap
and now and they will appear. And if you think about any
anxiety disorder or any mood disorder, and I don't want to
say this on because I'm saying it just out of years of working,
(07:02):
any person who is feeling stressed, who is feeling
anxious, who is feeling fearful,who is feeling low in mood, who
is feeling embarrassed, shame, guilt, guilty, These people when
those are because of life eventsor for situational moments, that
(07:23):
is going to press, that's going to get you tightened.
That's going to be your walls are going to increase.
And when it's going to close up.So that's going to be is going
to be worsening the intrusions of any any, any kind of
additions. Intrusions not only worsen them
(07:43):
that they are the people, as we mentioned before, the people, as
we mentioned in the previous episode, people would do the
best they can to get those intrusions off or to stop them
impacting their life. So the more stress in your life,
the more personal life, the morechange, the more uncertainty,
the more it compact, the more itprecious and the more intrusions
you're having, the more you're responding to them.
(08:05):
So one of the first thing I always have discounted with
people is let's start to identify when there are external
factors that they are pushing you and trapping you.
How I explain this sometimes I'll be more in, in detail on
this, maybe in, in another video.
I always in my imagery. So I, I have a lot of imagery in
my mind and, and I, I get, rather than thinking words, I
(08:29):
think in images. I get those, those films where
the Macy's and the labyrinths are and there is always that
wall that starts crunching in, right?
So when your life starts crunching, when the world
starts, life is dumb maze, sometimes it's easier, sometimes
it's harder, sometimes straight,sometimes it's just that wallet
(08:50):
starts crunching. What you are going to do, you're
going to push it, you're going to fight it, you're going to
climb it, you're surviving. So if you put that in the
context of your intrusive thoughts, what happens is that
you're doing that by engaging onthose behaviors, approaching,
avoiding behaviors. In OCD, we call them compulsion
(09:10):
results, right? So that is what what I always
envisage my thoughts getting worse or my images getting worse
when then I have all this stress, thinks are stress,
getting in a partnership, separated from a partner,
illness, illness from loved ones, changing jobs, get buying
(09:31):
a new house, selling a house, getting evicted from a house,
having debt. All of that will crunch.
And if you are experiencing interesting thoughts and that
could be of any kind that we will go through the series, then
you're going to be more likely to have them.
In the case of OCD, whatever happened, if you have violent
thoughts, you might just start to have more imagery of thoughts
(09:52):
of attacking people, murdering people, knives and people and so
on and so forth. OK, so hope that sort of gives a
bit of a element of the intrusive thoughts.
Now what sometimes, so now we gointo intrusive thoughts in
anxiety or generalized anxiety. And so God, G80, what happens is
(10:15):
that the thoughts are is are slightly different and they are
more. And this is where it becomes
slightly more difficult to differentiate.
And let's say, let's put it out there, there is a lot of overlap
with OCD and generalized anxietysort of God.
(10:37):
There's a lot of overcome. And then what happens is that
they are very common orbit. What happens with God is that
the thoughts of the worries thatyou're having.
So more the intrusive thoughts are more of our worries, more of
our subtitles are what ifs, future orientated.
There are more things like day-to-day, more things that
(10:59):
they are more likely to happen. So financial strain, missing
daylights and work relationships, setbacks in a
project, they are all of them. They are more likely to happen
falling with falling out with friends, restaurant not being
good. And the way you notice is that
those keep coming back, keep coming back and people notice.
(11:22):
They pick. So there are times when people
worries more, there's more. What if they have more
intrusions about future? Very unlikely events to happen
however they are realistic so you may be so trained.
You may forgot your hob on. You may go to a restaurant and
(11:43):
be disappointed. Your wedding may go bath and
your relationship go and cannot work out.
You may be cheated. You may not be cheated.
One of the things that intrusivethoughts and anxiety disorder or
anxiety and apologies about the disorder and anxiety and
heightened anxiety has is the sense of uncertainty and the
(12:12):
inability of coping. So if you think something bad is
going to happen in the future and you're not going to be able
to cope and you haven't got the scripts and you don't know when
it's going to happen, well, anyone will be feeling anxious
about it, right? Anyone will be feeling a
nauseous part. So what people tend to develop
(12:32):
is to have that over preparation, over checking,
checking restaurants, checking flights, checking reviews,
looking at things online. Nowadays, very common,
constantly checking online for things.
What happens is that the thoughts keep coming back, keep
coming back, coming back. The what if it never really
(12:52):
satisfies is never goes away. And the more important thing
also in OCD is that the doubt isconstant.
It doesn't matter how much you check, you're always going to
doubt. So the what if, what if I got it
wrong? What if I didn't check out of
you? So then we try to, we continue
(13:13):
doing more and more and more andmore.
So what happens is many, many people will try to problem solve
things that they are so far fetched in the future that they
are not in the present and they are missing out the actual
interaction. They are missing out the
(13:33):
friends, they are mixing out work.
They're missing out in the here because they live in the future
and that future is always catastrophic.
It's always that always looking on the dark side of what is to
come. I always say it and I might
always have sometimes said I never come across anyone
(13:55):
worrying about good things happen in the future.
No one worries about it. So what is the intrusion will be
always a negative thing of what is going to happen because we
are designed to survive and that's what I believe.
We're designed, we're clever, we're intelligent, we're
survivors. We go where we are because what
(14:16):
we've done and how we survive. So your mind is designed to
problem solve issues. Problems, danger most of the
time is designed stats For many users, maybe that's not
possible, maybe some biological,some neurological.
There may be things that people are not the majority of people.
So I'm talking for the majority of people.
(14:37):
But the specific events, there be always differences.
So your mind is designed to survive.
So that's what you're going to, that's what you're doing
different things is that you're perceiving danger everywhere.
The hope that sort of explains abit of the intrusions as we
understand you, in generalized anxiety disorders.
And once again, it could be images, it could be images, it
(15:00):
could be memories, it could be thoughts.
Right now, finally, we are moving on to ANIK.
Once again, I'll be having a bitof a drink.
This time. No one said I'm talking, no one.
No one commented on the speed oftalk.
(15:20):
So I've been trying to reduce, so I appreciate.
So in panic or when we're havingpanic, it's not an anxiety
attack is different than a panicdisorder, right?
That's an important thing. So an anxiety attack might be
when we feel overwhelmed with anxiety, I think we might not
(15:42):
cope with the situation and so on and so forth.
Well, the difference is when we think about panic or panic
disorder with or without agoraphobia, it's about having
the thought, an intrusive thought and let me, whoa, let me
go back a minute. So when we are thinking I'm not
going to be able to cope what iscoming, that also could be
(16:03):
classed as an intrusive thought because you are unwantedly, your
brain is popping. You can't cope, you can't cope.
You can't cope where if you would not feel overwhelmed with
emotions when you survive, I'm called, let's take a step back
and say that that I can't cope. I'm getting this thought, what
is in my control? How can I cope with this?
(16:25):
Have I coped before? And you may be in a situation
that you are not that you need more resources, you can problem
solve, you can find you can get help, right.
So let's put that in in, in the context as well as sometimes
people have the thoughts of I can't cope yet they are more
able to count the day mind a setof time what the thoughts are
(16:48):
being into. So what happens with the panic?
When we're talking about panic, we're talking about panic
attacks, panic disorder, right? Not having anxiety attacks.
What happens is that sometimes people are in public places in
their home and by a physical sensation or by something
(17:11):
outside. So we call them internal or
external triggers. Internal triggers heart
palpitations or stomach ache, raise temperature, external
triggers, slamming door, close room, bright lights.
And we suddenly we start feelingor we start having the intrusive
(17:33):
thought that something bad is going to happen to us.
So I'm having a heart attack, I pass out.
I lost control and embarrassed myself.
I'll weigh myself, I'll faint. And the really interesting thing
about panic and panic attacks isthat only by reading the words
(17:57):
and the side tested that many times reading the words of
suffocation, I'll have a apologies that was that
apologies. So by reading the words
suffocation and I'm going to choke, people will start
(18:19):
panicking and they feel the sensations of choke, right?
So that is one of the really interesting things.
So when people are having a physical sensation that triggers
that I'm having a heart attack or I'm going to choke, then that
intrusive thought of I'm going to choke is going to worsen your
(18:41):
anxiety as it was. So then what people do, and we
all do, we look out for things. We are hyper focused on our
physical sensations. We look at escape routes, we
look at what we can do not to pass out and so on.
So that's very important. And I'm going to say these are
(19:02):
perfectly normal intrusive thoughts.
This is also perfectly normal ways of coping.
Yeah, because what we want is people to cope.
What we want is to survive. Apologies, what we're tiny is to
survive. And that will be it.
So now what I'm going to ask youis I hope this has been helpful.
(19:23):
As you know on the description, you got the e-mail podcast at
onlinehyphencbt.com and also youhave links to the clinic social
media pages and some informationon how you can book some therapy
either for panic at OCD or anything else.
(19:43):
We have a wide range of adult and young people, children
therapist. So what we're going to do now is
we're going to move on to again that mindful exercise.
That we that I personally enjoy and I practice very often.
So what I'm going to ask you, asusual, you feel safe.
(20:05):
You're not driving, you're not in a public place and you can
close your eyes if you know you can do this with your eyes open.
Today we are going to introduce a bit of tapping.
So what I'm going to ask you is I'm going to be asking you to
tap on the side of your leg or with your back, with your hands
inside your jumper as I have, orat the back of your pocket
(20:27):
trousers. You can do that.
I'm going to invite you to do this topic if it feels
comfortable and if you feel safe, and if you're driving or
you are in a public transport and you want just to listen,
just listen. OK, So what I'm going to ask you
is to start breathing in. I'm breathing out much longer.
(20:50):
I'm going to ask you to breathe in and breathe out much longer.
And I'm going to ask you to start tapping right, left,
right, left. And what I'm going to ask you is
you don't itch. If it feels too much breathing
in and tapping and you have an intrusive thought, I'm not doing
it right. I can't ever think so straight.
(21:14):
I'm going to ask you to make thechoice of not tapping and
continue breathing in and breathing out.
Most important, because it is very common that people cannot
do postings at the same time at the beginning and with the
kindness and compassion, when I ask you to remind yourself, may
(21:37):
I be kind to myself, May I be compassionate to myself?
May I remind that beginnings arealways difficult.
May I remind myself that I'm trying the best I can, taking a
deep breath in and a longer breath out.
I'm going to ask you to perhaps go to that calm place we
(22:01):
identified last time. And if you come you, it's the
first time you've here to remindyou to go to a lovely, calm,
tranquil place that you enjoy somebody.
Perhaps you've been, most importantly, you've been alone
or you've been with people. That has been far something.
There's no one there to create any distress or any intrusive
(22:25):
thoughts. I'm going to ask you as you tap
it in and breathing, if that feels right for you to find the
most comfortable seat in that calm place and to then go
(22:46):
through what we discussed today,those intrusive thoughts, how
they collectively we all experience them.
Whether there isn't a panic, whether it is for excessive
anxiety, whether it's for intrusive thoughts and
obsessions and breathing in and breathing out.
(23:08):
I'm an attitude, taking the lastbreath out to look at the sky
and blow these clouds away, seeing how they go in the
horizon and how the coming compassionate and kind stun
shows up. And noticing the world of the
(23:33):
sun, your skin, the compassion that the sun light beams, the
healing and kind bring to you and they touch your skin.
(23:55):
And how should you take another breath in and along with it out?
And when a thought comes in, I want to ask you to your breath
out with it in your hand. Imagine you can breathe it out
in your hand. Looking at that thought in your
hand there is an image, what is a belief or a urge?
(24:20):
Give it a shape, give it a colour, give it a temperature
and then tell that thought and knowledge in that thought that
is there and there is nothing you can do that is intrusive, is
normal. Now you can't let it go.
(24:43):
You don't have to respond, you'll have to be a motional
effect. So your next breath out as you
take a deep breath out, breathe it out, let that thought go and
transform into a butterfly and fly away towards the horizon
(25:08):
until it disappears. And it's most importantly,
noticing your body, how it feelswhen the thought goes and
disappears. Taking a deep breath in and
(25:33):
along and without. And as you to do, then a lot of
thought pops in. And if not enjoying the scenery,
enjoying the calmness of Douglas, taking a deep breath in
and along and without when you're ready and ask you to
(25:55):
return to the here and now, openyour eyes or continue driving.
Come soon and now. So I hope you enjoy this brief
meditation. This is an exercise you can
practice and I'm going to inviteyou to practice it over the next
few weeks and the our next podcast.
Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed it, please follow
(26:18):
us. Please register or sign up or
whatever you do on the podcast. But yeah, subscribe.
That's the word. So yeah, thank you very much.
I hope you enjoyed.
Hello and welcome again to the mental health and well-being
CBT, AMDR and Beyond podcast. I am Jaime and I am a therapist
and director of the online therapy clinic.
Today we're going to go through a podcast on that follows up
from the previous podcast on intrusive thoughts and how they
(00:26):
look like and so on. I enjoyed the last podcast, some
of nice comments and a nice for that e-mail.
So I appreciate what we are going to do today.
We're going to be talking about intrusive thoughts in OCD, in
generalized anxiety disorder andfamily, so on.
(00:47):
So what? As we said, intrusive thoughts
are the norm and that is the main message.
I want everyone who is listeningto take from this.
I want you people to realise theintrusive thoughts is what we
all experience. Research says 80 to 90% I
believe is human nature because we all have brains and we all
(01:08):
think. And then what we're going to do
is we're going to be talking today about intrusive thoughts
on OCD that and bad. So let's start so intrusive
thoughts, inocity and thoughts images ages that can vary from
(01:29):
violent, sexual, religious, blasphemous, contamination,
illness related moral themes, paedophilia themes.
There'll be a wide variety of intrusions and there is some
some research where they gave 6 domains of them and that is very
(01:56):
important to know that this is what what are very are so common
that we can exploit them in domains.
OK, So what we know is that unlike other intrusive thoughts,
or unlike fleeting thoughts thatjust pop, pop, pop, these
obsessive thoughts, they persist, they feel sticky, they
(02:18):
increase your distress. They go beyond the initial
appearance of a simple sort of thought.
OK, what happens is that some people experience thoughts after
a event. So some examples, let's say
childbirth, some people might still have intrusive thoughts
(02:41):
about the dangers of a child. They may or may never have
thoughts before. Some people may be accused of
something or some people may have some point wish somewhere
in harm and that did happen and that that could lead all such
(03:02):
intrusive thoughts. These can be from early
childhood. They these people, some people
that report to have them from the age very young, age 345
years old, they remember the thoughts.
There is some research, some theories, some suggestions that
(03:22):
these are sometimes biological factors that are due to
illnesses. There are new life experiences,
there are some family history ofintrusive thoughts.
So there are very odd reasons. And one of the things that
people keep asking, why do I have intrusive thoughts?
(03:43):
How can I get rid of them? How can they stop?
It's a very, it's a question that many people ask and there
is a lot of research out there how it may happen, how
hypothetically these intrusive thoughts happen and ultimately
there is no actual answer. As per today and as per my
(04:04):
knowledge, there is no answer ofwhy we all have industry
thoughts. My take is going to be we have
minds. Minds think and they think what
they want and sometimes they areuncontrollable, They are
persistent, they are against ourvalues and they keep coming
(04:24):
back. They stick around so it's not an
actual answer with this thought,intrusive thoughts come up and
getting having more answered, having more asked when it's
around OCD than other difficulties.
OK, So what happens is that we can also have the surges we
(04:44):
explain and in OCD, well then the intrusive thought is against
our moral code, our our, our persons, our values.
And what that leads is to have distress and a ego dystonic
(05:08):
sense. So I don't want the thoughts.
They're not here. They are, they're here.
Why are they coming and so on. And that becomes a, a chain or
a, a cycle. What then happens is that
sometimes people have intrusive thoughts and they are in the
mind and they go along with lifeand they don't impact them and
some other impact. What some people have noticed is
(05:33):
that whether it's society or anyof the other things we're going
to go through later on, these thoughts, they start, they get
triggered, they get prompted by news, social media, listening of
others thoughts, inappropriate thoughts that we have that they
(05:57):
might not be. And then this, the obsession
starts. What is the difference with OCD
or what is happened with OCD is that there is the the ritual
Austria, there is the compulsions.
Both can be approaching or avoiding.
So it tends to be more approaching.
However, there is a lot of people trying to avoid thinking
about things, trying to block things.
(06:18):
And that's what what also will lead to the intrusions to come
up more and more and more. What happens with OCD?
He says the more we try to fightthose thoughts, the more we're
trying to not have them push them away, not pay attention,
the more likely they're going tokeep coming back.
(06:38):
So that is from the point of view of intrusive thoughts in
our city. OK.
And like I said, they, they, they will come up down the nap
and now and they will appear. And if you think about any
anxiety disorder or any mood disorder, and I don't want to
say this on because I'm saying it just out of years of working,
(07:02):
any person who is feeling stressed, who is feeling
anxious, who is feeling fearful,who is feeling low in mood, who
is feeling embarrassed, shame, guilt, guilty, These people when
those are because of life eventsor for situational moments, that
(07:23):
is going to press, that's going to get you tightened.
That's going to be your walls are going to increase.
And when it's going to close up.So that's going to be is going
to be worsening the intrusions of any any, any kind of
additions. Intrusions not only worsen them
(07:43):
that they are the people, as we mentioned before, the people, as
we mentioned in the previous episode, people would do the
best they can to get those intrusions off or to stop them
impacting their life. So the more stress in your life,
the more personal life, the morechange, the more uncertainty,
the more it compact, the more itprecious and the more intrusions
you're having, the more you're responding to them.
(08:05):
So one of the first thing I always have discounted with
people is let's start to identify when there are external
factors that they are pushing you and trapping you.
How I explain this sometimes I'll be more in, in detail on
this, maybe in, in another video.
I always in my imagery. So I, I have a lot of imagery in
my mind and, and I, I get, rather than thinking words, I
(08:29):
think in images. I get those, those films where
the Macy's and the labyrinths are and there is always that
wall that starts crunching in, right?
So when your life starts crunching, when the world
starts, life is dumb maze, sometimes it's easier, sometimes
it's harder, sometimes straight,sometimes it's just that wallet
(08:50):
starts crunching. What you are going to do, you're
going to push it, you're going to fight it, you're going to
climb it, you're surviving. So if you put that in the
context of your intrusive thoughts, what happens is that
you're doing that by engaging onthose behaviors, approaching,
avoiding behaviors. In OCD, we call them compulsion
(09:10):
results, right? So that is what what I always
envisage my thoughts getting worse or my images getting worse
when then I have all this stress, thinks are stress,
getting in a partnership, separated from a partner,
illness, illness from loved ones, changing jobs, get buying
(09:31):
a new house, selling a house, getting evicted from a house,
having debt. All of that will crunch.
And if you are experiencing interesting thoughts and that
could be of any kind that we will go through the series, then
you're going to be more likely to have them.
In the case of OCD, whatever happened, if you have violent
thoughts, you might just start to have more imagery of thoughts
(09:52):
of attacking people, murdering people, knives and people and so
on and so forth. OK, so hope that sort of gives a
bit of a element of the intrusive thoughts.
Now what sometimes, so now we gointo intrusive thoughts in
anxiety or generalized anxiety. And so God, G80, what happens is
(10:15):
that the thoughts are is are slightly different and they are
more. And this is where it becomes
slightly more difficult to differentiate.
And let's say, let's put it out there, there is a lot of overlap
with OCD and generalized anxietysort of God.
(10:37):
There's a lot of overcome. And then what happens is that
they are very common orbit. What happens with God is that
the thoughts of the worries thatyou're having.
So more the intrusive thoughts are more of our worries, more of
our subtitles are what ifs, future orientated.
There are more things like day-to-day, more things that
(10:59):
they are more likely to happen. So financial strain, missing
daylights and work relationships, setbacks in a
project, they are all of them. They are more likely to happen
falling with falling out with friends, restaurant not being
good. And the way you notice is that
those keep coming back, keep coming back and people notice.
(11:22):
They pick. So there are times when people
worries more, there's more. What if they have more
intrusions about future? Very unlikely events to happen
however they are realistic so you may be so trained.
You may forgot your hob on. You may go to a restaurant and
(11:43):
be disappointed. Your wedding may go bath and
your relationship go and cannot work out.
You may be cheated. You may not be cheated.
One of the things that intrusivethoughts and anxiety disorder or
anxiety and apologies about the disorder and anxiety and
heightened anxiety has is the sense of uncertainty and the
(12:12):
inability of coping. So if you think something bad is
going to happen in the future and you're not going to be able
to cope and you haven't got the scripts and you don't know when
it's going to happen, well, anyone will be feeling anxious
about it, right? Anyone will be feeling a
nauseous part. So what people tend to develop
(12:32):
is to have that over preparation, over checking,
checking restaurants, checking flights, checking reviews,
looking at things online. Nowadays, very common,
constantly checking online for things.
What happens is that the thoughts keep coming back, keep
coming back, coming back. The what if it never really
(12:52):
satisfies is never goes away. And the more important thing
also in OCD is that the doubt isconstant.
It doesn't matter how much you check, you're always going to
doubt. So the what if, what if I got it
wrong? What if I didn't check out of
you? So then we try to, we continue
(13:13):
doing more and more and more andmore.
So what happens is many, many people will try to problem solve
things that they are so far fetched in the future that they
are not in the present and they are missing out the actual
interaction. They are missing out the
(13:33):
friends, they are mixing out work.
They're missing out in the here because they live in the future
and that future is always catastrophic.
It's always that always looking on the dark side of what is to
come. I always say it and I might
always have sometimes said I never come across anyone
(13:55):
worrying about good things happen in the future.
No one worries about it. So what is the intrusion will be
always a negative thing of what is going to happen because we
are designed to survive and that's what I believe.
We're designed, we're clever, we're intelligent, we're
survivors. We go where we are because what
(14:16):
we've done and how we survive. So your mind is designed to
problem solve issues. Problems, danger most of the
time is designed stats For many users, maybe that's not
possible, maybe some biological,some neurological.
There may be things that people are not the majority of people.
So I'm talking for the majority of people.
(14:37):
But the specific events, there be always differences.
So your mind is designed to survive.
So that's what you're going to, that's what you're doing
different things is that you're perceiving danger everywhere.
The hope that sort of explains abit of the intrusions as we
understand you, in generalized anxiety disorders.
And once again, it could be images, it could be images, it
(15:00):
could be memories, it could be thoughts.
Right now, finally, we are moving on to ANIK.
Once again, I'll be having a bitof a drink.
This time. No one said I'm talking, no one.
No one commented on the speed oftalk.
(15:20):
So I've been trying to reduce, so I appreciate.
So in panic or when we're havingpanic, it's not an anxiety
attack is different than a panicdisorder, right?
That's an important thing. So an anxiety attack might be
when we feel overwhelmed with anxiety, I think we might not
(15:42):
cope with the situation and so on and so forth.
Well, the difference is when we think about panic or panic
disorder with or without agoraphobia, it's about having
the thought, an intrusive thought and let me, whoa, let me
go back a minute. So when we are thinking I'm not
going to be able to cope what iscoming, that also could be
(16:03):
classed as an intrusive thought because you are unwantedly, your
brain is popping. You can't cope, you can't cope.
You can't cope where if you would not feel overwhelmed with
emotions when you survive, I'm called, let's take a step back
and say that that I can't cope. I'm getting this thought, what
is in my control? How can I cope with this?
(16:25):
Have I coped before? And you may be in a situation
that you are not that you need more resources, you can problem
solve, you can find you can get help, right.
So let's put that in in, in the context as well as sometimes
people have the thoughts of I can't cope yet they are more
able to count the day mind a setof time what the thoughts are
(16:48):
being into. So what happens with the panic?
When we're talking about panic, we're talking about panic
attacks, panic disorder, right? Not having anxiety attacks.
What happens is that sometimes people are in public places in
their home and by a physical sensation or by something
(17:11):
outside. So we call them internal or
external triggers. Internal triggers heart
palpitations or stomach ache, raise temperature, external
triggers, slamming door, close room, bright lights.
And we suddenly we start feelingor we start having the intrusive
(17:33):
thought that something bad is going to happen to us.
So I'm having a heart attack, I pass out.
I lost control and embarrassed myself.
I'll weigh myself, I'll faint. And the really interesting thing
about panic and panic attacks isthat only by reading the words
(17:57):
and the side tested that many times reading the words of
suffocation, I'll have a apologies that was that
apologies. So by reading the words
suffocation and I'm going to choke, people will start
(18:19):
panicking and they feel the sensations of choke, right?
So that is one of the really interesting things.
So when people are having a physical sensation that triggers
that I'm having a heart attack or I'm going to choke, then that
intrusive thought of I'm going to choke is going to worsen your
(18:41):
anxiety as it was. So then what people do, and we
all do, we look out for things. We are hyper focused on our
physical sensations. We look at escape routes, we
look at what we can do not to pass out and so on.
So that's very important. And I'm going to say these are
(19:02):
perfectly normal intrusive thoughts.
This is also perfectly normal ways of coping.
Yeah, because what we want is people to cope.
What we want is to survive. Apologies, what we're tiny is to
survive. And that will be it.
So now what I'm going to ask youis I hope this has been helpful.
(19:23):
As you know on the description, you got the e-mail podcast at
onlinehyphencbt.com and also youhave links to the clinic social
media pages and some informationon how you can book some therapy
either for panic at OCD or anything else.
(19:43):
We have a wide range of adult and young people, children
therapist. So what we're going to do now is
we're going to move on to again that mindful exercise.
That we that I personally enjoy and I practice very often.
So what I'm going to ask you, asusual, you feel safe.
(20:05):
You're not driving, you're not in a public place and you can
close your eyes if you know you can do this with your eyes open.
Today we are going to introduce a bit of tapping.
So what I'm going to ask you is I'm going to be asking you to
tap on the side of your leg or with your back, with your hands
inside your jumper as I have, orat the back of your pocket
(20:27):
trousers. You can do that.
I'm going to invite you to do this topic if it feels
comfortable and if you feel safe, and if you're driving or
you are in a public transport and you want just to listen,
just listen. OK, So what I'm going to ask you
is to start breathing in. I'm breathing out much longer.
(20:50):
I'm going to ask you to breathe in and breathe out much longer.
And I'm going to ask you to start tapping right, left,
right, left. And what I'm going to ask you is
you don't itch. If it feels too much breathing
in and tapping and you have an intrusive thought, I'm not doing
it right. I can't ever think so straight.
(21:14):
I'm going to ask you to make thechoice of not tapping and
continue breathing in and breathing out.
Most important, because it is very common that people cannot
do postings at the same time at the beginning and with the
kindness and compassion, when I ask you to remind yourself, may
(21:37):
I be kind to myself, May I be compassionate to myself?
May I remind that beginnings arealways difficult.
May I remind myself that I'm trying the best I can, taking a
deep breath in and a longer breath out.
I'm going to ask you to perhaps go to that calm place we
(22:01):
identified last time. And if you come you, it's the
first time you've here to remindyou to go to a lovely, calm,
tranquil place that you enjoy somebody.
Perhaps you've been, most importantly, you've been alone
or you've been with people. That has been far something.
There's no one there to create any distress or any intrusive
(22:25):
thoughts. I'm going to ask you as you tap
it in and breathing, if that feels right for you to find the
most comfortable seat in that calm place and to then go
(22:46):
through what we discussed today,those intrusive thoughts, how
they collectively we all experience them.
Whether there isn't a panic, whether it is for excessive
anxiety, whether it's for intrusive thoughts and
obsessions and breathing in and breathing out.
(23:08):
I'm an attitude, taking the lastbreath out to look at the sky
and blow these clouds away, seeing how they go in the
horizon and how the coming compassionate and kind stun
shows up. And noticing the world of the
(23:33):
sun, your skin, the compassion that the sun light beams, the
healing and kind bring to you and they touch your skin.
(23:55):
And how should you take another breath in and along with it out?
And when a thought comes in, I want to ask you to your breath
out with it in your hand. Imagine you can breathe it out
in your hand. Looking at that thought in your
hand there is an image, what is a belief or a urge?
(24:20):
Give it a shape, give it a colour, give it a temperature
and then tell that thought and knowledge in that thought that
is there and there is nothing you can do that is intrusive, is
normal. Now you can't let it go.
(24:43):
You don't have to respond, you'll have to be a motional
effect. So your next breath out as you
take a deep breath out, breathe it out, let that thought go and
transform into a butterfly and fly away towards the horizon
(25:08):
until it disappears. And it's most importantly,
noticing your body, how it feelswhen the thought goes and
disappears. Taking a deep breath in and
(25:33):
along and without. And as you to do, then a lot of
thought pops in. And if not enjoying the scenery,
enjoying the calmness of Douglas, taking a deep breath in
and along and without when you're ready and ask you to
(25:55):
return to the here and now, openyour eyes or continue driving.
Come soon and now. So I hope you enjoy this brief
meditation. This is an exercise you can
practice and I'm going to inviteyou to practice it over the next
few weeks and the our next podcast.
Thank you for tuning in. If you enjoyed it, please follow
(26:18):
us. Please register or sign up or
whatever you do on the podcast. But yeah, subscribe.
That's the word. So yeah, thank you very much.
I hope you enjoyed.
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