Repetitive thoughts

Hi,

I was just wondering if any of you know how to deal with "repetitive thoughts". I don't think it's a thought, but actually someone inside repeating the same thing over and over.
In this case: "Not everyone is bad, but I am bad."
It almost starts to sound like a poem after a while.

How do you deal with this? Ask about it? Draw about it?
Or is it better to distract/ignore?

- S & T

For us find out who is repeating the words, then why. Address the problem find a solution if possible. Hope they stop

yes, it happens here too.
sometimes distraction works, that needs to be followed by a careful exploration of why this happened.
Often distraction does not work and we won't get any answers because the part just keeps repeating things.
Then we look for the trigger and ask them to just say the sentence louder when we are getting closer with our questions.
usually removing a trigger, communicating safety and helping them to relax a little works for us.

This is... probably not the same thing, but Voiceless Sam was repeating "Arnold Samspon holds the key to our subsystem," yesterday, and we talked with Arnold Sampson and discovered our subsystem the Formative Friends.

In your case, it's different, but I think something common between our situations is that asking about it is probably a good start. I think if it's coming from someone inside then it's not good to ignore the thought.

[edit to correct alter #]

Yup. Situation normal.

I had this in a big way for months then off and on for years. I (then Alter 0) used to hear Alter 5 say the same thing over and over again. There were times when it was quite maddening! Post fusion I remember hearing this but do not remember saying it. Which goes to show that, at least in my case, the insiders mostly are unconscious in some important sense.

With my therapist's guidance I handled the distracting voice hearing using a variety of techniques including symptom charting drawn from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and therapy for OCD. We used these techniques early on because at the time I had no direct verbal communication with Alter 5. Later, my therapist supervised me through some psychodynamic psychotherapy with Alter 5, which ended the "verbal diarrhea." We all understand that these repetitive statements were effectively mindless and certainly not intended as communication.

DID therapy is all about addressing cognitive barriers in the mind, and the client learning to modify them. In some situations it is appropriate to firm them up, so there is less leakage or flooding of affect, verbiage, imagery etc. that is not intentional communication. In other situations it is appropriate to lower or remove these same barriers so that integration can occur.

Isn't this interesting?

Repetitive negative thoughts are common to people without any disorder or psychological issue.

So my suggestion is what I learnt in a personal development course:

Say "thank you for sharing" and then think of the opposite positive thought.

I use it alot. I don't address the issue in relation to DID because it's a common human occurrence. Generally overall I have become more positive in my outlook because of doing this.

I wouldn't know how to address it in relation to DID so that's the best idea I have.

Sarandipity wrote:Repetitive negative thoughts are common to people without any disorder or psychological issue.

So my suggestion is what I learnt in a personal development course:

Say "thank you for sharing" and then think of the opposite positive thought.

I use it alot. I don't address the issue in relation to DID because it's a common human occurrence. Generally overall I have become more positive in my outlook because of doing this.

I wouldn't know how to address it in relation to DID so that's the best idea I have.

Interestingly enough (and I don't think this is the case for everyone or even most people with DID) every negative thought that lasted for an extended period of time came from someone we know now to be a separate individual within our system with their own name. It's... probably why we have over 100 members. We're especially bad at coping with things like people without DID do xD

Edit: We know our headcount is only 95 but we said we have over 100, but that's only because we haven't met everyone properly, but we know there are more individually operating denizens.

For me it happens all day. I have ocd.

What happens with ME is that they had a thought idea issues etc m and they switched before they had a chance to get into it or even finish what there saying.
.so they keep saying the say shyt over and over again because they're sorta stuck.
And sometimes they don't realize they're doing it.

Sometimes they try to repeat the same thing over again because they're trying to fi ish the sentence. Sometimes I do that so I can latch onto them and talk to them.. Lol

Thanks for the responses everyone!

It's reassuring and helpful.
I do not have the time and energy to write a proper reply now, but will do so when I do get the chance. The replies are very interesting to me.

For now, this is how I ended up handling the situation:
I made an effort to be kind to the part who was repeating the statement.
She was fronting with me at the time.
I showed her that I would take care of her by arranging dinner and she shared some memories that I didn't know about but were OK.
Then I talked out loud to her. I directly addressed what she said, in a reassuring way. ("There are a lot of people who are bad, and a lot of people who are not. You are not bad, I know you are not.")
And I also explained that she can see for herself that things are different now by looking.
Then I told her that there was a nice meal for her, that she didn't have to cook if she didn't know how to, and that she could pick what we would watch during the meal.

Then I suddenly connected to her feelings.

I/she cried.

She was very, very surprised by my kindness. It felt like it was WAY too much. That is why she cried.

And for me it felt like I was connecting to the "I am bad" feeling. I could feel her burden, pretty much for the first time.

Since then she has not been repeating the statement anymore.

DozensOfDenizens wrote:

Sarandipity wrote:Repetitive negative thoughts are common to people without any disorder or psychological issue.

So my suggestion is what I learnt in a personal development course:

Say "thank you for sharing" and then think of the opposite positive thought.

I use it alot. I don't address the issue in relation to DID because it's a common human occurrence. Generally overall I have become more positive in my outlook because of doing this.

I wouldn't know how to address it in relation to DID so that's the best idea I have.

Interestingly enough (and I don't think this is the case for everyone or even most people with DID) every negative thought that lasted for an extended period of time came from someone we know now to be a separate individual within our system with their own name. It's... probably why we have over 100 members. We're especially bad at coping with things like people without DID do xD

Edit: We know our headcount is only 95 but we said we have over 100, but that's only because we haven't met everyone properly, but we know there are more individually operating denizens.

The course also said to give the negative voice in your head a name - but I didn't like that idea. I just tackle each thought and also have a positive mantra stuck around the house: "I love you, you're worthwhile..." to give self love.

So when you have a negative repetitive thought it's coming from another persona? Not the same persona who is generally negative?

None of mine are particularly negative as such. Karen will do stuff seen as negative if she considers it necessary. Beth used to cry at every horrible part of life - the environment, how people are horrible to eachother, who society is discintigrated. It took alot of philosophical consideration to quell that. She'll feel awful over something Karen feels fine about because necessary or not it was negative.

The solution for all of us was to do some helpful with our lives, to aim at bringing joy, to help others (and to help ourselves because we deserve it too). To formulate a code of conduct and morals that minimise potential negative impact and maximise our positive impact. Hating ourselves would be counterproductive and we like to avoid hating others so if we can do that for others - have compassion and forgiveness and kindness then we can do it for ourselves. If we come across a nasty outside individual we avoid them not out of fear but because we would get caught up in stopping them and we gave that up to pursue doing as much good as is possible in our own small way rather than stopping negativity - if that makes sense.

Still struggling to get over each negative repetitive statement having lead to another alter? - That must be terrible