1246: Intrusive Thoughts And Anxiety: 3 Gentle Steps To Stop The Fear Spiral
The Anxiety Coaches Podcast
Gina Ryan
4.6 • 1.9K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2026
⏱️ 23 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In today's episode, Gina discusses how to deal with intrusive thoughts, especially as they manifest for people with anxiety. Intrusive thoughts can be very common for individuals with overstimulated minds and bodies. They can be highly disturbing, as well. Listen in for tips on how to address your intrusive thoughts: calm the mind, thoughts and body.
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Chapters
0:26 Intrusive Thoughts Explained
6:41 Contain the Thought
10:42 Allow the Feelings
13:56 Return to the Present
16:41 Practice Self-Compassion
Summary
In this episode, we talk about intrusive thoughts and how they can feel shocking, disturbing, and isolating. We explain that these thoughts are common, especially when the nervous system is anxious or overstimulated, and that the distress they cause does not mean they reflect who we are.
We describe how intrusive thoughts can become repetitive when fear makes the brain treat them as important. This can lead to a loop of hypervigilance, self-monitoring, and more fear. We compare this to a survival response that stays active long after the original alarm has passed.
We then offer three steps for responding differently. First, we contain the thought instead of becoming fused with it, and we ask for actual evidence rather than reacting to fear. We note that a thought is not an intention, a prophecy, or an identity.
Second, we allow the physical sensations to rise and fall without adding panic. We name what is happening in the body, such as adrenaline or tightness, and remind ourselves that discomfort does not mean danger.
Third, we return to the present moment again and again through grounding and mindfulness. We mention simple practices like noticing the feet, breathing, sounds, textures, and nearby surroundings, and we emphasize that repeated returning is practice, not failure.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to the anxiety coaches podcast, a relaxing and informative show where we explore anxiety, panic, and PTSD, sharing how you can overcome them for life. |
| 0:23.1 | Aloha. |
| 0:24.2 | Welcome back to the anxiety coaches podcast. |
| 0:27.5 | I'm your host and coach, Gina Ryan, and I am so happy to be with you again today |
| 0:34.1 | as together we can consider the many ways to bring your mind and body back to its |
| 0:40.5 | natural peace and calm. In today's episode, we're going to talk about something that can feel |
| 0:47.4 | incredibly disturbing and isolating when you are experiencing it. And that's intrusive thoughts. These are the thoughts that seem to |
| 0:58.2 | come out of nowhere, out of the blue as we say. The thoughts that make you stop and say, oh my gosh, |
| 1:05.3 | where on earth did that come from? They can feel shocking, disturbing, sometimes even terrifying. I know because I've |
| 1:15.6 | had them. You've probably had them. Most people have. And one of the things I hear over and over from people |
| 1:23.5 | is, Gina, I feel like I'm having crazy thoughts. Now, I want to say right from the |
| 1:29.7 | beginning, intrusive thoughts are actually a very common human experience, especially when the |
| 1:37.8 | nervous system is overstimulated or anxious. The content of the thoughts can vary wildly, but the mechanism underneath them is |
| 1:48.7 | remarkably similar. And here's something important to remember. The fact that the thoughts |
| 1:56.3 | disturb you so deeply is actually part of the clue that they are not aligned with who you are. |
| 2:05.7 | People often become frightened not only by the thought itself, but by the fact that the thought |
| 2:12.7 | appeared at all. They say, what does this mean that my mind even produced this? It can scare us that we could |
| 2:22.1 | come up with such wild thoughts. But the mind is capable of generating all kinds of material, |
| 2:29.9 | especially when the nervous system is in a heightened survival state. |
| 2:36.8 | Intrusive thoughts are sticky because they trigger fear. |
| 2:41.6 | And that fear tells our brain, this must be very important. |
| 2:47.5 | Keep watching it. |
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