- Hi all does anyone else struggle with looping thoughts? Mine are horrendous and once I'm stuck on an anxious thought I cannot stop and it gets so bad I feel like I don't want to be here anymore. I can't seem to distract myself from these thoughts
Thanks for the reply Holy cow. I'm sorry you suffer with this too .I've been doing it my whole life I thought it was just anxiety until my support worker pointed out that it was the autism. It's a horrible thing to go through and zaps all your energy. I often end up in meltdowns beaceuse these episodes won't stop. Thanks for the advice I'll try using that technique. X
Holy cowww I thought I was the only one with this issue. Well I feel less alone lol. I once had the phrase “I am the king of the hill” (no idea where my mind caught that) stuck in my head for over a year. Recently I had a pretty harmful looping thought that took a while to shake off. Unfortunately the only thing I know that can be a fix is thought stopping, or in other words every time that phrase comes up you have to think of a response to it to dismiss it.
Ex. “I can’t do this anymore” should be followed up with “But I’m going to try” or “Actually, I can do this” or “But I can do X instead”
That helped me last time I had a harmful looping thought.
Dear Purplemoon2008,
Thank you for posting and telling the community what you are going through. We are sorry to hear that you are currently experiencing looping thoughts which make you feel anxious. It is good that you’ve let us know how you feel. Many people have similar thoughts when coping with so much and we hope you’re okay.
If you are unable to cope with the distress or despair, it’s very important to tell someone about your feelings or thoughts of suicide. Call your GP and make an urgent appointment. Your GP can make sure you get appropriate help and support .
The National Autistic Society does not currently operate a crisis or emergency service. We advise you to contact 999 or any of the mental health crisis lines listed on our Urgent Help Page if you are at risk of immediate harm: https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/help-and-support/urgent-help
If you are not at immediate risk of harm, we would encourage you to speak to your GP or another health professional about this if you haven’t done so already. If it’s outside your GP hours call 111 to reach the NHS 111 service. In England, Wales and Scotland there is now an option to speak with mental health professionals by selecting ‘option 2’ when calling NHS 111: https://www.nhs.uk/nhs-services/urgent-and-emergency-care-services/when-to-use-111/
You may also find the following useful:
Help for anyone struggling to cope
We hope this is helpful to you.
Kind regards
Rosie Mod
I can relate to situations too and it can make me have meltdowns also. Thanks for the advice I will try the repeating technique x
Yes, I get that. For me it‘s often about what-if-scenarios which make me feel anxious, but what bothers me the most in my everyday life is what I call ”logic looping“. I will go over a thought again and again and again in an effort to make sense of it while ultimately just confusing myself further. This is very upsetting and can lead to strong anxiousness, frustration or even set me up for shut-/meltdowns.
I found that repeating a phrase or scheme (for example naming my favourite whale species over and over or even more often continuously going through the cABCDE-scheme) can help me to drown out the looping thoughts and to reset my focus. This of course only works when I recognise the loop rather early on so that I‘m not already too deep in it.
There are some suggestions here that might be helpful:
Psychology Today - How to get out of an autistic thought loop
It's awful isn't it stuart333. I do that too with others , it drives my partner up the wall . He says once you have gone over one think for weeks and weeks you then go onto another subject! Thanks for your reply x
Yes. I keep returning to the same things, and going over them again and again. What is even worse is when they are not correct, or based on erroneous thinking. You resolve it, then forget and go over it again, and again.
For bonus points you can tell someone else, then keep steering the conversation onto the same topic, over and over. Till they get pissed off. And you don't even know you are doing it.
Now I've recognised it perhaps I can limit it.
I think there are short period loops and long periods loops. It is also related to stress, lack of sleep and how close you are to burnout, in my opinion.