Obsessive thoughts are the real cause of almost all your anxiety. Every single time you’ve had severe anxiety it started with an obsessive thought, and it spiralled out of control and eventually became the severe anxiety you felt or the panic attack you had.
If you think this isn’t how it works with you and that your obsessive thoughts AREN’T the cause of your anxiety, start paying attention to how and what you’re thinking before your anxiety increases.
Most people are very surprised at the results when they study themselves in this way, and I think there’s a good chance you will be as well. And there’s a good reason why I can predict this kind of outcome: because for many years (almost 20, in fact) I lived with exactly the same problems you’re living with right now.
The really terrible thing about having an anxiety disorder is that you can’t just shut off your bad thoughts like a lot of non-anxious people can. So you need a different option. And that option is to find ways to bring an instant halt to a potentially harmful thought before it ever has a chance to become an obsession.
I’m about to give you a quick, three-step plan of attack which you can start using right now to stop the thoughts you have turning into the obsessive thoughts that cause all your problems. Okay, here we go:
Step One is to retrain your brain, ASAP. You need to get it to a place where it can spot a negative or potentially damaging thought the moment that it begins. This includes thoughts that start out very tiny and seem to be no problem at all. These small thoughts can grow into huge ones that cause serious problems, so these need to be treated just as the obviously terrible thoughts are treated.
Step #2: People with no anxiety problems drop a harmful or negative thought after a few seconds, and that’s why it doesn’t cause them anxiety. You need to become like them. And since the only way to stop one thought is by having ANOTHER thought, you need to think something else as soon as you detect any of these harmful thoughts. What should you think of? Anything – whatever it takes to stop that original and harmless thought.
Okay, step three is to make this new positive way of thinking a habit that happens automatically, just as your harmful thoughts are happening automatically for you right now. The only way to make this happen is to think positive thoughts as frequently as possible. In time, your mind will automatically think these positive thoughts when your mind wanders, where once it would have gone immediately to the damaging thoughts you experience right now.
Use these 3 steps to quickly put a stop to your obsessive thoughts and your panic attacks.
stop panic attacks