Controlling thoughts?

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I used to struggle with this and I've gotten really good at controlling my thoughts, pushing out the bad ones and focusing on the good or neutral ones, but I still struggle from time to time. Panic disorder and Paranoia issues leak into my head, and constant simulations of negative events repeat themselves. Other times, I can get rid of the thoughts but don't want to. If someone threatens me, I want to remember who they are so I can protect myself. Beyond that, I am trying to learn how to quickly dissipate anxiety and racing thoughts, especially in social settings. I've gotten pretty good at this but it's sot of a constant suppression effort, nothing that long lasting. What are some of your methods if you have any, or what do you do to gain more mental discipline?

I've gotten as far as diverting my thoughts almost entirely but there's always the residue of that unwanted thought in the background. Aspergers makes these kinds of things worse, because it's like we think in a chain of connected thoughts which activate each other, leading to a great memory but horrible "forgetting" skills. Even just today I feel like I've made great progress with limiting the damage and making my thin skin "thicker". Pretty soon I might be able to actually wear clothes I can't stand or take a verbal hit from someone I don't like with adequate responses.

For the anxiety or social problems kinds of thoughts?
Meditation works for me - a mixture of samatha/mindfulness, metta bhavana and vipassana/insight. The first helps calmness and not getting too involved with your own insubstantial subjective thoughts and feelings. The second helps cultivate comfortableness and general goodwill toward others which somehow helps them to interact better with you, and the third provides deep understanding around your behaviour, your mind and other issues connected to the problem.
For repetition I have a few strategies going as this is a HUGE problem with me, if you're interested check out the psychological conditions sub-forum.