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Reducing Rumination: Getting Free from the Ghosts That Follow
Published in Brian C. Miller, Reducing Secondary Traumatic Stress, 2021
You might find it surprising that you have intrusive thoughts just as often as do people with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Ninety-four percent of us have been distressed by intrusive thoughts in the last three months (Radomsky et al., 2014). We are talking to ourselves in our heads constantly. This self-talk may be random, neutral thoughts or worries (“Did I lock the front door?”), but after an emotionally evocative experience, our intrusive thoughts are very likely to be an emotional review of that stressor. These imaginal “stress reviews” become the screen saver in our brain anytime we aren’t actively engaged in something compelling enough to activate the task centers of the brain. In short, we keep replaying that stressful event, and that keeps the stress response alive.
Prenatal Diagnosis
Published in Rosa Maria Quatraro, Pietro Grussu, Handbook of Perinatal Clinical Psychology, 2020
Patients are asked to read or listen to their account of the experience in session. The therapist can periodically ask the patient to assess their level of distress to help determine “stuck points” or “hot spots” (i.e., distorted appraisals or interpretations that result in unrealistic beliefs about themselves or others) that are associated with particularly strong levels of distress that are likely precluding effective processing of the trauma. They are asked to read or listen to the account daily between sessions, as well, during the time they have set aside to focus on their loss. When thoughts of their loss occur outside of these circumscribed, time-bounded periods, they are advised to change their focus to something else, putting these thoughts on the backburner until their chosen time to concentrate on the loss. This stimulus control procedure can help patients regain some sense of control over intrusive thoughts and reduce emotional overwhelm.
Migration and mental health
Published in Bernadette N. Kumar, Esperanza Diaz, Migrant Health, 2019
Involuntary intrusive thoughts provoke extreme fear. You may see people upset and unable to concentrate on the consultation. Simple techniques (36), used by psychologists and in Psychological First Aid (13) to help control re-experiencing symptoms, can be used in GP surgeries with anyone distressed, anxious, or dissociative. Grounding helps re-focus and dispel anxiety. Ask what has helped previously and pick one or two from the list to try. Remind people that they are in a safe place; reiterate where they are, who is with them, and that these are just memories. They are unpleasant but not injurious.Stimulate the senses: Use a distracting noise − for example, music; ask them to push their feet hard into the floor, touch something cold, or describe the colours of things around them.Count backwards, recite an alphabet, or list facts.Breathing exercises: Breathe in for a count of 4, pause for 1, then slowly release for 6, and repeat.
Strategies for Controlling Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts and Insomnia Severity in Urban-Residing Young Adult African Americans
Published in Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 2023
Alicia Stokes, Milan Poindexter, Kimberly Bell, Thomas A. Mellman
Adverse environmental and psychosocial factors including racial discrimination (Bethea et al., 2020) and stressful neighborhood environments (Hale & Do, 2007) can impact sleep by engendering intrusive thoughts. Intrusive thoughts are defined as “any distinct, identifiable cognitive event that is unwanted, unintended, and recurrent. It interrupts the flow of thought, interferes in task performance, is associated with negative affect, and is difficult to control” (Clark, 2005, p. 4). Researchers have found an association between intrusive thoughts and insomnia. Lichstein and Rosenthal (1980) found that cognitive rather than somatic arousal was endorsed as the major contributor to their insomnia in a sample of 296 individuals with insomnia. In a clinical sample of 14 adults with primary insomnia, those with greater stressful intrusive thoughts had poorer sleep quality (Hall et al., 2000).
Testing intrusive thoughts as illness pathways between eating disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorder symptoms: a network analysis
Published in Eating Disorders, 2022
Shruti S. Kinkel-Ram, Brenna M. Williams, Shelby N. Ortiz, Lauren Forrest, Joshua C. Magee, April R. Smith, Cheri A. Levinson
The aims of this study were to estimate central ED-related intrusive thoughts and to identify illness pathways between ED-related intrusive thoughts, ED symptoms, and OCD symptoms. This was the first study to examine these constructs together using network analysis, and utilized a non-clinical, cross-sectional sample as a preliminary investigation of this relationship. In a network of ED-related intrusive thoughts, we found that that intrusive thoughts about bodily appearance and fears of fatness/weight gain were the most central. In a comorbidity network, we found that desire to lose weight, eating in secret, and shape dissatisfaction emerged as central symptoms. Contrary to our hypotheses, intrusive thoughts did not emerge as bridge symptoms in our network. However, we found an illness pathway connecting difficulty concentrating due to thoughts of food/calories, time spent obsessing, functionally impairing compulsions, and intrusive thoughts about fears of fatness and weight gain. This study provides preliminary evidence that cognitions surrounding food and calories may promote intrusive fears about fatness and weight gain, as well as engagement in compulsions that may be functionally impairing. Efforts targeting ED-related intrusive thoughts related to body dissatisfaction and thoughts of food/calories may prevent the development of ED and OCD symptoms among the community. Further research examining other aspects of intrusive thoughts, and in a clinical sample, is warranted.
Gender differences in eating disorder-related intrusive thoughts
Published in Eating Disorders, 2022
Intrusive thoughts are sudden and discrete thoughts, images, and urges that are experienced as difficult to control and interfering with ongoing activity (Clark, 2005). Within the last decade, research has emerged investigating the presence of intrusive thoughts in relation to an array of psychological disorders, such as body dysmorphic disorder (Mufaddel et al., 2013), hypochondriasis (Fallon et al., 2000), and eating disorders (e.g., Brewin et al., 2010; Pascual-Vera & Belloch, 2018). Researchers in this growing area propose that intrusive thoughts may be a transdiagnostic mechanism across a range of conditions.