Intrusive thoughts, anxiety and the brain

Intrusive thoughts

Intrusive thoughts are thoughts or images that involuntary flash in and out of our minds, most of us have had them at one time or another, according to Radomsky et al, 2014 90% of us suffer with intrusive thoughts or images at some point in our lives.

What makes them bothersome and for some frightening is they are sudden and unwanted, can be distressing and disturbing because they often carry themes of violence. Thoughts we will act out the thought and/or taboo subjects e.g. I’m a paedophile or a murder.

Most of us we can bat the thought or image away telling ourselves not to focus upon it or just say that’s a silly thought or picture. 

If we suffer with a mental health issue such as anxiety or depression for example, the thoughts and images can become very intense and feel real, causing us to be in fear of our own thoughts and  mind, this stops us trusting ourselves and this can be distressing and evoke fear.

However, they are just thoughts or images.  They don’t mean anything until we put and attach our personal meaning to them.  

That’s when we start with the “what ifs” ? …… the “what if I”  carries us forward into fear of ourselves and causes more worry and anxiety.

The what if I’s are inconsistent with our values which is what makes them feel dangerous to us.

THE BRAIN Neuroscience tells us when we are experiencing thought flashes, intrusive images and thoughts it is our Cortico-striato-thalmon-cortical circuit or for short CSTC circuit which is misfiring.   

Bit of a mouth full for me, but in short, the mechanisms are:

In essence the CSTC filters out irrelevant thoughts through signals, when we experience intrusive thoughts the CSTC loses its ability to detect threats and increases the neural noise into danger and urgency, hence the intrusive flashes, thoughts and  images. Losing its ability to detect logical and illogical thoughts and fires constantly creating false alarms.

The Amygdala our old friend - this is the part of the brain which is our fire alarm and responds to the misfiring’s we are experiencing intrusive thoughts or images it will interpret  “this thought does not fit with my values, I am in danger” and releases signals to our nervous system and activates our flight, fight, freeze, fawn or collapse responses.  

The Amygdala would rather have a thousand misfiring’s then miss one real danger so its happy to interprets an intrusive thought as dangerous, just in case.   It isn’t until we attribute our personal meaning to the thought or image that ramps up its activation. Amygdala fires and off our nervous system goes into survival mode and all that pushes onto us.

Pre-frontal-cortex – tries to suppress the thoughts but once the nervous system is activated the more anxiety, we feel the more the PFC is suppressed itself and shuts down so this reasoning part of our brain is rendered inactive for a time.  Our cortex is the part of the brain which activates the sensations, logic thought, intuition for example. 

Both the Amygdala and the Pre-frontal Cortex are separate pathways to anxiety which fuels intrusive thoughts. 

However, the Amygdala has more connections to our unconscious processor and therefore mobilise a lot of bodily responses more quickly such as increasing heart rate, blood pressure, and surges of chemical e,g, adrenaline.  Activating the many symptoms we feel when we are experiencing an intrusive thought or anxiety without us doing anything at all.

Anxiety

Having information about how the brain works give us a better chance of helping and supporting ourselves. Understanding the mechnisms of our nervous system we can support ourselves, calm and regulate ourselves with practice, all the symptoms we feel in anxiety are a warning sign from our nervous system and they are there to protect our overall well-being and safety.

If you are experiencing anxiety or intrusive thoughts, we can help ourselves by building a tool box of coping strategies in the first place to help calm our nervous system.

For example:

• Always come back to your breathing – this will stop the prefrontal cortex from shutting down and help to support its activation again if its already shut down.

• Name and claim – Label the thought as “this is an intrusive thought” or “this is my Amygdala activation and breath.

• Accept and allow - the thought and anxiety to be - stop fighting them it only makes them worse – stop trying to solve why they happened in this moment – stop giving them your attention.

• Return to you breathing and naming and labelling the thoughts and let them pass through your mind as they flash in allow them to flash back out again without holding the words or meaning.

• Practice catching them before they catch you – become aware if there is a pattern to them or if they are random throughout your day – so you can stop them increasing  by using the above tools.

• Try defusing the thoughts by distracting yourself and shifting your attention away from the thought creating distance within your mind from the fearful or distressing thoughts.

• Tell your self when we are having an intrusive thought “these thoughts are not facts”, “these images are not real”, “I’ve no intense of acting on this thought or image”.  Name the thought for what it is an intrusive thought nothing more.

• Psychoeducate yourself as much as possible on how the mechanics of anxiety work within the body and you are halfway to healing and managing your nervous system and regulating yourself for a peaceful and productive life.

Remember you are not alone or the only person to experience intrusive thoughts but know you can take your power back from them in time with practice.

Give your brain the right workout with the tools above. Your brain will thank you for it and you will thank your brain,

Because this will lead to a peaceful and productive, fulfilled living.

We all want this don't we!

If you live in the British Isle and are in needs of counselling support for any of the above. I offer a free 30 mins video call so we can meet before our first session. Contact me at email: pendulumofpeace8@gmail.com text or WhatsApp message to 07867938630 and lets connect and realise your fullest potentials.