social distancing from intrusive thoughts

~ The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it (Terry Pratchett)

Never in 25 years of practising psychotherapy have I seen as many cases of obsessive thinking as in the past 12 months of this pandemic. The surge in the number of eating disorders, OCD and substance (or other) addiction is breathtaking, and it's not due to Covid, at least not directly. Social isolation, though necessary to preventing viral spread, has also provided fertile ground for the proliferation of toxic thinking. 

I've long believed, "in your house in your head", meaning: the more time we spend enclosed within the walls of our home, the more likely we are to be enclosed within the confines of our mind. This leaves us vulnerable to the pull of rumination that, like an undertow, can plunge us into the downward spiral of self-sabotage. We need to get out of the house.

But there's more to mental hygiene than escapism. 

Intrusive thoughts enter my mind the way an intruder enters my home. I may not see him coming at first, and I can't stop him from showing up at the front door, but I can choose whether or not to let him in. Similarly, with intrusive thoughts, I cannot control whether or not they show up in my head, but I can choose whether or not to give them admission into my mind. If I allow intrusive thoughts to take up mental space, they become much like the intruder who, once he has made himself at home, becomes much harder to get rid of. The cyclone of toxic thinking can lead to hours of fun in the form of self-doubt, obsessive rumination and/or relapse.

Beware of thoughts that initially present as self-preserving doubts, "what-ifs" or "maybe-I-shoulds". They can quickly become toxic, turning against us like an immune system gone awry. We need to distance oursleves from them as much as from the virus. Do not let them into your head, not even for a second.