We've all been there — lying awake at night with racing thoughts worrying about something that happened at work, or halting in panic convinced that we've left the oven on. These types of thoughts are often referred to as "intrusive" thoughts that stick out as particularly upsetting, worrying or annoying.

我们都有过这样的经历——深夜清醒地躺在床上，脑海中飞速回放工作中的烦心事；或是突然惊慌地停下脚步，确信自己忘了关烤箱。这类思维常被称为“侵入性”思维，因其特别令人不安、焦虑或烦恼而格外突出。

Intrusive thoughts can also come in the form of worrying or scary impulses: to flip the table or punch someone in the face. "Thoughts like this are normal and all of us have them from time to time, " says Mabel Martinelli, a psychologist with more than 25 years of experience in helping people manage their thoughts. "It's when we fixate on them and judge ourselves by them that they can turn into OCD or anxiety."

侵入性思维也可能以令人担忧或恐惧的冲动形式出现：比如掀翻桌子的冲动，或是挥拳打人的冲动。“这类思维是正常的，我们所有人都会偶尔产生，”拥有 25 年以上思维管理指导经验的心理学家梅布尔·马蒂内利指出。“当我们过度关注这些思维并用其评判自我时，它们就可能演变为强迫症或焦虑症。”

Fortunately, there's lots to be done to prevent this from happening.

值得庆幸的是，我们有很多方法可以阻止这种情况发生。

1. Get more sleep

1. 保证充足睡眠

By some measures, a third of us in Britain are chronically sleep deprived, getting less than seven hours of sleep per night. Recent research suggests that five hours of sleep is a minimum to ward off intrusive thoughts, and the more the better.

据统计，三分之一的英国人长期睡眠不足，每晚不足七小时。最近的研究表明，至少要睡五个小时才能抵御侵入性想法，且睡眠时间越长效果越佳。

2. Don't fight them

2. 不要与之对抗

Nothing makes us more sure to think about something than our efforts not to think about it — like trying not to think about pink elephants. This can make recurring thoughts especially hard to tackle and it's why the most disturbing thoughts are often the most persistent.

刻意不去想某件事情，反而一定会让我们想到这件事情——比如努力不去想粉红色的大象。这会让反复出现的念头变得特别难以应对，也解释了为何最令人困扰的想法往往最为顽固。

3. Take away their power

3. 削弱这些想法的力量

Intrusive thoughts are so distressing in part because they seem important. "But just because we think something doesn't make it true. We get to choose which thoughts we believe, " Martinelli says. Seeing that your thoughts are only thoughts can make them less likely to pop up again.

侵入性想法之所以如此令人困扰，部分原因在于它们看起来很重要。马蒂内利表示：“然而，我们只是想到了某件事，并不代表它就是真实的。我们可以选择相信哪些想法。”你只要意识到想法仅仅是个念头而已，就可以减少它们再次出现的概率。