by Loretta Murphy-Birster

Created on: February 13, 2007   Last Updated: May 02, 2007

How to suppress bad thoughts

As a working therapist for 25 years, one of the hardest interventions to teach is how to control unwanted, or for the sake of a value judgement, "bad" thoughts. There are many articles and types of therapy tricks that deal with this issue. Much of a person's success or failure in controlling their thinking will have to do with the person's willingness to admit to the secondary gains involved with these "bad" thoughts. There is also the element of why the person is having unwanted thoughts. Reasons can range anywhere from guilt, to depression, to psychosis.

In the psychotic mind, "bad" thoughts stem from severe and persistent mental illness. "Delusions" are irrational, fixed ideas that can be annoying, distressing, and even sometimes, pleasurable. Regardless of how you rank them, they intrude on the person's quality of life. If I think I am the Queen of England, and I'm not, it can create quite a kink in my world. It might be initially rewarding to have such a grandiose self image - but only for a while. When Charles and Camilla never arrive for tea and the only crown you have is from your neice's last Burger King birthday party, it can bust the proverbial balloon.

Time to get rid of those unwanted delusions? Medication is the best policy. A diagnosed psychosis is best treated with good drugs - of the antipsychotic kind. Resperidol is one of the newest and the best, but there are others. See a psychiatrist with a well educated perscription pad.

Moving on...

In a slump? Thinking your world is draped in black and you're trapped in a blue funk? Considering changing your address to a deep deep hole in your back yard? Do you keep thinking of your dead dog Rover and the guy who shafted you in the 7th grade for the class Barbie with the fake boobies? Can't get your mind past getting dressed in the morning?

You are, more than likely, clinically depressed. There are great antidepressants out there, like Paxil and Prozac, Wellbutrin, and others but unfortunately they take a good 6 to 10 weeks to kick in. Besides that - and I'll be frank - most depressions are only partially stabilized with medication therapy.

What's the key to getting rid of those unwanted depressive thoughts that make you want to crawl under the covers forever?

COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY...you don't want to "suppress" unwanted thoughts. You want to change them into good thoughts.

The same answer holds true for thinking disorders spanning the gamut of "neuroses" that plague those

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