What is obsessive thinking?
Emotional obsession is the relentless urge to think about an issue. It is a thinking habit in which unwanted and intrusive thoughts assume a circular pattern. An event, highly emotionally charged, is replayed in the mind. It can also include the anticipation of a future event. The anticipated event, once imagined, becomes a part of your emotional past. You begin with a hurtful or enticing comment, remembered or anticipated action, proceed through the event in the same order as the event was experienced or is imagined, and finish without conclusion or resolution. Because of this lack of closure, you feel compelled to review the same event again. As the event becomes more familiar, some details are dropped, and the thinking pattern becomes more constrained. This develops into circular thinking, which spirals down into a foreshortened and irresistible mental habit, like a mental itch that needs to be scratched. The Significance of Obsessive Thinking How bad is this problem? This mental ha
