Thought-event fusion

Hi,

Thank you for asking your question. I will try to answer it along with giving some advice.

Our thoughts are a very essential part of how we behave. We are able to make predictions, assess risks and make correct decisions. Where we have freedom of choice, we also experience responsibility of our actions. Making mistakes can therefore feel bad and causes us to feel anxious.
There are different types of thoughts. One sort is called intrusion. An intrusion is a thought that can randomly pop in your head and can have a bizarre or unwanted content, such as harming someone. These are very normal and everyone experiences them. You can check this list for common intrusions: https://niceday.app/en/library/anxiety/compulsive-disorder/list-of-obsessions-of-people-without-ocd/

Just as in real life, we can also make mistakes in our thought processes. These are called cognitive distortions and there are multiple of them. The one you are talking about, is called Thought-event fusion, which means you believe that having certain thoughts can lead to certain consequences in real life.

These cognitive distortions in combination with our sense of responsibility, can cause anxiety as well as the need to neutralize any predicted 'danger'. Acting upon those thoughts feels important, but can actually contribute to feeling more anxious in the future. Since you think you neutralized a predicted 'danger', you are unable to discover whether the predicted danger was actually true. Therefore you are unable to adjust the risk-assessment and you will still feel anxious the next time you experience certain thoughts.
For now what you can do:

• Anxiety is very normal and can be very helpful in real dangerous situations. It's important to be aware if something is a realistic or unrealistic danger. Your body is unable to tell the difference, until it has seen prove. Your anxiety will always tell you that the worst is gonna happen to stay alert and to avoid or prevent danger. It's important to challenge yourself and face your fears in order to regain control. Try to ignore certain thoughts or practice preventing yourself from acting on them.
• Calm yourself and talk to yourself as if you were talking to a friend if he/she was scared. Focus on the facts, be kind to yourself and maybe even have a little laugh that our mind can sometimes do crazy things. It's all completely normal!
• You can also practice to counter cognitive distortions. For example by thinking certain things on purpose, such as "If I don't press my nose 5 times, I am gonna be bitten by a dog today.". But also for the 2nd experiment "If I do press my nose 5 times, I am gonna be bitten by a dog today.". And then discover if it's actually happening because of pressing your nose or if it's just chance.

If you notice you keep on struggling, if the anxiety increases or if this is causing more problems in your daily life, I strongly recommend getting help from a professional. You can visit your GP to ask for a referral.

Hope this helps you a little bit!

Kind Regards