another worry i dont how much longer i can take this

[anna86]

well i have been going through a really bad time with my anxiety and i trying to cope and figure out the horrible unwanted thoughts i have been getting.it seems like they just get worse i get over one and than some worse thought comes up. ok im going list how my thoughts begin. first i started to worry becouse i became pregnant and i new i had anxiety problems so i started to worry about having anxiety while pregnant than it all startedto get worse i had thought like what if i have bad post pardom depression and want to hert my baby or molest children than i started to freak out!!! i couldnt bare the thought of becoming a molester i kept thinking "what if cant stop myself evan it i wanted to" than i was like there is know way on earth i could touch or hert a child theres just no way! than i began to what if i already did and just cant remember??? and of course i tried to track down my thoughts but only made me more confused! than somebody was talking to me and trying to make me feel better and got on a subject about how a girl made herself believe that she had molested by her father and they sent him to jail only to find out it had never happen so of course that started to freak me out like what if i start to believe my dad molested me and i just cant take that he is the only one i can talk to about my anxiety and to have thought like that freaks me out becouse i cantgo to him with that. than i was looking around on internet trying to find answers like i always do and came across a forum aboutmolestation and that sometimes whan ppl are molested when they are young they block it out and dont remember anything so im freaking what if i start to believe that i was molested i feel terrible for evan thinking this. i really feel like im going crazy!!!! i feel so alone what do you think is wrong with me???? im so scared that i will never be normal again.....pleasehelp:confused:

[Guest ASchwartz]

Hi Anna86,

Your anxiety worsens partly because of the way you are thinking. Go back to your post and reread it. If you will do that you will see how, in describing your thoughts, you say that you started to think, "what if........"

"What if..." types of thoughts and questions are great ways to drive our selves crazy. It is important to catch ourselves doing it and STOP IT.

Think about it: "What if the cow jumped over the moon." Life right now is enough to deal with. Why project what MIGHT happen or MIGHT NOT happen. "What if" thoughts are unhelpful because no one can tell the future. So, why bother? The answer to that?.....Don't bother. Dismiss your "what if" thoughts by telling yourself, "OOOPs, there I go again, just like Allan said."

In other words, you are scaring the daylights out of yourself and for no reason. That is what your fears are about.

Let us know how it goes.

Allan:)

[Mark]

These sound like obsessive sorts of thoughts. Obsessive thoughts work like the "Chinese Finger Puzzle" toy that people get (where you put your fingertips into either end of a tube and then try to pull them out. The harder you pull the tighter the toy grips you. However, if you relax your hands and pull apart slowly, your fingers come right out. The analogy here is (as Allan has suggested), to do what you can to relax about these possible (but not very likely) outcomes. The more you buy into the need to fret, the stronger that such obsessions frequently become. If you can relax (actually physically relax, or distract yourself, etc - read our stress management topic center for ideas) your grip on these thoughts, they are likely to lose energy and trouble you less.