I' have been stuck looping over a conversation that' I had with someone recently . The looping over this has been going on for the past 4 days I cant stop and I feel exhausted and suicidal I just can't carry on like this my brain will just not give me a rest. This isn't the first time I've been stuck like this once it went on for a year over a stressful situation. I literally feel like I'm loosing my mind .
Dear Purplemoon2008,
I know Rosie Mod shared this information on your other post. I wanted to attach it to this post also, as it can be helpful for other users to know that the mods have seen your post.
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
Sharon Mod
Thanks Stuart333 I'll take a look at that. Glad it's helped you and that it's become a special interest.
I can't claim credit.
This is a good video about cognitive distortions, presenter is autistic, so you should be able to relate. I think it is his best video.
I mentioned the items to.my therapist. I did so much stuff between sessions I was always ahead of what they wanted to do. The value of making the therapy a special interest. I asked them if they were annoyed but not much they could say.
This is more NT, but it still works.
I'm taking a screen shot of what you've said and will keep reading it .
This was my point. You are worried and ruminating on the chance you were misunderstood. You don't know if you were or were not. While you don't know the thought will keep coming back and you can't resolve it as you don't know.
So how could you know. You could ask them, you could ask someone who knows them. You could write to them by email or text, to clarify what you meant. You could call them. You could observe what they do or say to figure it out.
Also does it matter. What is the worst that could happen if you were misunderstood? Is it easily fixed next time you see them?
I have recently learnt you need to watch out for the cognitive issues, e.g. assuming the worst, assuming you know what other people think, black and white thinking, catastrophising, etc. it is these that cause the loops because your subconscious knows you are not sure.
Also if you try to be clear when you communicate you can stop yourself worrying later. If you are not sure try to be clarify what the other person understood at the time. It takes a bit of courage.
I know all of this is hard to do and it is easy to say. But try to remove the opportunities to ruminate. Because you will do it anyway if you can. My worst one is worrying over something for 27 years that may not be true and was not unreasonable. It is about knowing yourself and what you do if not careful.
Stuart333 Im worried I was misunderstood. I've tried focusing on fact but it doesn't work. Thanks for your advice though I get where you coming from I will give these a go
Thanks Thecatwoman I'll try and give it a go x
If you can visualise easily, try this, imagine yourself in your very own cinema complete with sound, in front of you is a control board that controls whats on the screen in front tof you and the sound effects. There's a stop button for sound and one for visuals and an eject button, press the stop button, the the eject button, pick up the CD, tape, vinyl (whatever) and carry it to a door on your left, through this door is a furnace, drop the CD into the furnace and watch it burn. Come back out of the furnace room and pick something else to listen too. If you need to get rid of a visual, then press the stop visual button and then the one marked ROLL, this will roll up the screen image and you can go and unhook it, squish it up and stuff that in the furnace too. Theres also select buttons for both visuals and sound, so you can choose something else to play from memory.
It does take a bit of practice but I find this helps me, although not always with earworms, but I think the mental concentration of doing different mental tasks in your mind helps to break these doom loops.
Thanks Laurenc I'll try some of those things . I feel like I'm going mad it's so horrible isn't it.
Did the conversation not go as expected?
Or are you just worried you or they may have misunderstood it.
You can try to focus on what you know as fact, and try not to assume the rest. The facts are the facts, you can't change them. If you want a different result you could make a plan for that. By being in control and being clear it may help to stop thinking about it too much.
If you need to be sure about your assumptions you could plan how to do that as well, like have another conversation and what you need to say.
Perhaps writing it down may force you to crystallize your thoughts and you can then see them and go through them.
Distraction may help for a while but they still come back. Only dealing with them in some way makes them really go for me, else I am just burying them.
Thanks for your reply and advice and thanks I hope I feel relief soon
This is something I experience a lot unfortunately. What helps me is distracting myself with things I enjoy. Some things that work best for me are
When my mind is racing I have to distract myself until I calm down or I’d just go crazy!
i get stuck in those thoughts sometimes as well, it goes round and round in your head, i know what you mean, it fades out eventually, but it takes a long time. it does make you feel exhausted and drained as well. i just tend to try and focus on other things like watching something, focusing on my interests or listening to music like someone already mentioned to try and dampen it down a bit. sometimes it works and other times it doesn't. i hope you can find some relief really soon :)
I know this feeling. Maybe try this?
Thanks Robert124 I'll give it a go .
