Making up problems

Yep, me too.

I believe that this called "rumination" and experience has it to be a component of personal anxiety and depression.

In my experience the solution is to find a way of resolving the anxiety and depression.

Hehe as easy as that...  Of course not!  

Anyway what seems to work for breaking the rumination process for me is...

First one needs to recognise one is engaging in rumination and I believe that by writing this you have acknowledged this

Doing something actively demanding breaks the thought process.

A wise person told me once that if there is something that troubles one and something can be done about it then do it.  If not then tell oneself that when the opportunity arises to do something about it then one will.  E.g. coming up with something one may do to address the concern.

It is said also that observing the experience without judging it helps - if like me you are habituated to being hard on yourself this doesn't come easy...

I think that this is the domain of cognitive behavioural therapy and have found this helpful.  The tricky thing is that like any therapy one needs someone who not only understands the analysis and techniques involved but is also able to impart this skill to others.

If there was one thing I'd be quick to dump from my personal mental repertoire it would be rumination - I wonder though that if I did so my capacity for "deeper" thought would be lost...

Anyway...

Best wishes

I have done CBT and I didn't find it helpful. One of the things they talked about was acknowledging the thought and letting it pass. How on earth you are supposed to do that, I never found out.

That is in my experience indeed a difficult skill to master when it comes to certain types of thoughts Expecto_Patronum .

However for some thoughts it is perhaps easier? One might observe, say, a chair for example. Observe the thoughts one has in doing so e.g about it's shape, colour, purpose, who normally sits in it for example.  Such thoughts as these may be quite easy to let pass.

However those thoughts which one gets "stuck" on (in my personal case events where I fear that I have done wrong or future events where I fear I will be unable to do without being wrong) this to me does not take place so easily.

On the sadly few occasions when I am happy and relaxed it is easier to do so - however to be happy and relaxed one needs not to be experiencing these thoughts...  Hmmm....

So firstly I have found it necessary to identify what it feels like to be physically and mentally relaxed and then use this as a comparative measure of current and past states - kind off like knowing what it is that one is aiming for.

For me I found this in "flow states" when engaged in physically or mentally focused activity in a safe environment.  Essentially enough other physical or mental activity to distract one from the "stuck" thoughts.

I also found it in moments when on waking I occasionally found myself in a calm state where thoughts were not rushing to intrude or run like freight trains through my mind.

This state of calm I then sought to replicate through what I believe to be widely called meditation.

A particular type of which is called "bubble meditation".  I have on rare occasions found this to be successful at allowing me to acknowledge a thought and let it pass.

I am at this point myself concluding that the bubble of the thought that I engaged with to reply to you is now passing.  As I do so I perhaps not surprisingly have observed another "bubble" of a thought regarding how to acknowledge a thought and let it pass - that of writing it down...

Best wishes

That is in my experience indeed a difficult skill to master when it comes to certain types of thoughts Expecto_Patronum .

However for some thoughts it is perhaps easier? One might observe, say, a chair for example. Observe the thoughts one has in doing so e.g about it's shape, colour, purpose, who normally sits in it for example.  Such thoughts as these may be quite easy to let pass.

However those thoughts which one gets "stuck" on (in my personal case events where I fear that I have done wrong or future events where I fear I will be unable to do without being wrong) this to me does not take place so easily.

On the sadly few occasions when I am happy and relaxed it is easier to do so - however to be happy and relaxed one needs not to be experiencing these thoughts...  Hmmm....

So firstly I have found it necessary to identify what it feels like to be physically and mentally relaxed and then use this as a comparative measure of current and past states - kind off like knowing what it is that one is aiming for.

For me I found this in "flow states" when engaged in physically or mentally focused activity in a safe environment.  Essentially enough other physical or mental activity to distract one from the "stuck" thoughts.

I also found it in moments when on waking I occasionally found myself in a calm state where thoughts were not rushing to intrude or run like freight trains through my mind.

This state of calm I then sought to replicate through what I believe to be widely called meditation.

A particular type of which is called "bubble meditation".  I have on rare occasions found this to be successful at allowing me to acknowledge a thought and let it pass.

I am at this point myself concluding that the bubble of the thought that I engaged with to reply to you is now passing.  As I do so I perhaps not surprisingly have observed another "bubble" of a thought regarding how to acknowledge a thought and let it pass - that of writing it down...

Best wishes