How to stop repetitive bad thoughts?

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For some reason if something makes me mad/sad/scared etc I often can't stop thinking about it and the bad thoughts just keep floating around in my mind like turds in a swimming pool. I am wondering if anyone else has this and knows how to stop thinking about it?

I have been diagnosed with OCD, and I constantly have unwanted intrusive bad thoughts. These thoughts are very terrible, and I know how you feel I have battled them all of my life. I am truly sorry to say I know of no way to make them stop. I am going to see a psychologist soon hopefully that will help. Though your thought patters does appear to be a sign of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. My recommendation is to see a doctor because they will put you on an anti-depressant an SSRI. I have been on fluvoxamin-maleate, and zoloft neither one does any good for me, but then again my genetic makeup is rather resistant to many forms of medication. I hope that you find the help you are searching for, and I am truly sorry to leave you with such an unsatisfying answer.

I refer you to Dr. Wayne Dyer.

Bad thoughts cycling your head are hard to get rid of - but its like a pattern of events. You need to break the cycle, by doing something completely different to what your doing NOW.
Either get up and leave the room and start doing something that will focus you conciously on something else, or leave the house if you are able and go and buy something from the shops - little things that are a complete mental pattern breaker - its hard though - but sometimes the tiniest distraction leads to you going off on a tangent in your head about something different.
Negative thoughts can eat away at you and you end up draining yourself of energy wasting time thinking about them.

Oh yeah, I used to do this constantly and I still do from time to time. However, I have learned ways of coping with these thoughts and have had positive results. I tend be insecure about myself and often worry about what others think of me, which obviously has bad effects on my emotions. What I do, when I have negative thoughts, I write them down in a journal. After I write about whatever was bothering me, I respond to it with a positive counter statement on the page next to it. It helps me feel better, maybe it will do the same thing for you.

Try forcing yourself to think positive thoughts. For every negative thought you think, make yourself think of a positive (even if you don't believe it.) Eventually this becomes repetitive too.
Negative thinking is awful and every time you think the thought you reinforce it; this can be quite damaging. Don't let yourself get away with it.

This may be the craziest suggestion you have ever heard, and there is no guarantee that it works, but it might be worth a try.

Acetylcysteine is a drug for persistant cough. It's sold without prescription as effervescent tablets in most countries and is not addictive. The odd thing is that it seems to reduce obsessive-compulsive symptoms (thoughts and behaviours).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acetylcysteine#Psychiatry

I didn't know about this and found out by accident when I took it for a cough that wouldn't go away. To my surprise, it also stopped negative repetitive thoughts I had upon waking about something unpleasant that had happened to me.

[quote="Einschmidt"]For some reason if something makes me mad/sad/scared etc I often can't stop thinking about it and the bad thoughts just keep floating around in my mind like turds in a swimming pool. I am wondering if anyone else has this and knows how to stop thinking about it?[/quote

I think it's tourettes that does that...I get them too but they've gone worse when someone said something to me a few years ago.

I try to make myself happier as they are less frequent.

The thing that helps me with such thoughts is talking to someone once a week. There are nurses that come to the soup kitchen to volunteer. They act as doctors and counselors. I talk to the nurses there.

I find that things I am worried about can cycle round and round in my head, especially when I'm alone and stressed. I find the best way to deal with it can be to talk to someone about it and who can cheer me up. Also anything that reduces stress is helpful.

One of those things I'm still working on my OCD, but for me at least it seems to act more like a form of ADHD. A psycho stimulant in the past has proved almost too effective in solving my problems. I mostly need to deactivate my verbal-conscious train of thought and live in the moment more, almost like I'm acting somewhat subconsciously and impulsively. I'm not really sure if an SSRI ever did anything for me. Of course, this was about five years ago when I was taking medication, using both a stimulant an an SSRI, so its kinda hazy what exactly was effective. I also run into severe anxiety and panic attacks, not to mention sensory sensitivity. Even going without coffee right now would make me very, very, grumpy.

I would recommend seeing a psycotherapist and see if they can help you cope with thoughts in particular. It helps to have someone you can trust to talk too and will offer good advice.

I can relate to this. I have a tendency to think of things that are not going to happen to me or that won't for a long time, like having children, and obsessively worry and read about them over and over and think about things like "will my husband still want me after my body is messed up from having kids". I also have a tendency to worry too much in certain situations; for example the other day my boyfriend was driving me home in a nasty rainstorm and I was holding his hand with tears streaming down my face the whole time, thinking of how if another car hydroplaned and killed us I wanted our ashes mixed together or to be buried next to him.