🎃 Spooky Season, Scary Thoughts: How to Handle Mental Monsters 👻

Ghosts aren’t the only things haunting us this October.Sometimes it’s not the creaky floorboard or the pumpkin patch scarecrow—it’s that memory of the awkward thing

you said in middle school, the “what if everything goes wrong?” spiral at 2 a.m., or the random intrusive thought that barges in like an uninvited zombie.

The truth? Intrusive thoughts are actually normal. Everyone’s brain coughs up weird, unsettling, or downright cringey thoughts now and then. What makes them feel monstrous isn’t the thought itself, but the way we wrestle with it. Stress, anxiety, and exhaustion can turn up the volume until a harmless “brain gremlin” starts sounding like a full-blown ghoul.

So how do you unmask these mental monsters?

🕸️ 1. Name It, Don’t Shame It

When a scary thought pops up, label it for what it is: just a thought, not a prophecy. Try greeting it with, “Oh hey, brain gremlin,” and move on. By noticing without judgment, you take away some of its power.

🕸️ 2. Ground Yourself

Pull yourself out of the haunted house in your head and back into the present moment.

Try the 5-4-3-2-1 trick:

• 5 things you can see

• 4 things you can feel

• 3 things you can hear

• 2 things you can smell

• 1 thing you can taste

Or simply stretch, take a deep breath, or focus on the room around you.

🕸️ 3. Write It Down

Sometimes, putting a thought on paper shrinks it from “monster” to “gremlin.” Journaling, jotting it on a sticky note, or even typing it into your phone can help you “close the book” on the scare.

🕸️ 4. Call in Backup

You don’t need garlic, sage, or a proton pack to fight mental monsters—you just need tools. And if those thoughts still feel bigger than you can handle alone, therapy can help you find the light switch in the haunted house. With the right support, even the spookiest thought loses its jump-scare effect.

👻 Final Word

This spooky season, remember: the scariest things often live in our minds, not in haunted houses. Intrusive thoughts don’t make you broken, weird, or cursed. They just make you human. And with a few grounding tools—and maybe a little professional backup—you can keep those mental monsters from running the show.

So light the pumpkins, enjoy the costumes, and remind yourself: you don’t need a ghostbuster. You just need support.