How to Stop Fighting Intrusive or Negative Thoughts – Passengers on a Bus Exercise from ACT
Learn to manage intrusive thoughts using the “Passengers on the Bus” ACT exercise with Emma McAdam in this Therapy in a Nutshell video.
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Intrusive Thoughts, Overthinking, ACT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Passengers on the Bus, Negative Thoughts
Have you ever felt like your negative thoughts are running the show? Like no matter how hard you try to push them away, they keep coming back, louder than ever? Maybe you deal with intrusive thoughts that feel terrifying, or you constantly overthink every decision. These thoughts can feel really overwhelming and they can seem to stop you from moving forward in life, from being happy, doing your work, or building relationships. If that sounds like you, then let me teach you an exercise that can help you break free from struggling with intrusive thoughts or overthinking.
It’s called the Passengers on the Bus metaphor from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT).
This metaphor was developed by Dr. Steven Hayes, the founder of ACT, and it offers a simple but powerful shift: You are not your thoughts—you are the driver of your life.
00:00 Intro
00:48 The Metaphor: You Are the Driver
06:55 A New Approach: Let the Passengers Ride
08:15 Identify Your Passengers
08:36 Name and Externalize the Passengers
09:12 Acknowledge Their Presence Without Engaging
10:05 Keep Your Hands on the Wheel
11:20 Here’s an Example
12:41Summary
Check out the transcript below:
How to Stop Fighting Intrusive or Negative Thoughts-Passengers on a Bus Exercise from ACT
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Therapy in a Nutshell and the information provided by Emma McAdam are solely intended for informational and entertainment purposes and are not a substitute for advice, diagnosis, or treatment regarding medical or mental health conditions. Although Emma McAdam is a licensed marriage and family therapist, the views expressed on this site or any related content should not be taken for medical or psychiatric advice. Always consult your physician before making any decisions related to your physical or mental health.
In therapy I use a combination of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Systems Theory, positive psychology, and a bio-psycho-social approach to treating mental illness and other challenges we all face in life. The ideas from my videos are frequently adapted from multiple sources. Many of them come from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, especially the work of Steven Hayes, Jason Luoma, and Russ Harris. The sections on stress and the mind-body connection derive from the work of Stephen Porges (the Polyvagal theory), Peter Levine (Somatic Experiencing) Francine Shapiro (EMDR), and Bessel Van Der Kolk. I also rely heavily on the work of the Arbinger institute for my overall understanding of our ability to choose our life’s direction.
And deeper than all of that, the Gospel of Jesus Christ orients my personal worldview and sense of security, peace, hope, and love https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/comeuntochrist/believe
If you are in crisis, please contact the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/ or 988 or your local emergency services.
Copyright Therapy in a Nutshell, LLC
49 Comments
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It was helpful. I suffered from anxiety for 5 years, I have recovered from it a lot but since a few days I was getting a lot of intrusive thoughts, they were disturbing me a lot. I'm not into medicine or therapy anymore. Just needed a video like this, I take them like therapy sessions now. Yeah, I feel better now just by watching the video, yet to practice, hoping for the best!
Thanks mam, this really helped me❤
This might be fine for social anxiety, but how does this help the 2am waking brain noise?
its the knot in my stomach and the constant worry that i want to go away.. how does this help with that or anxiety
Thank you ❤
love your work.
Ill summarize. She said to shrug it off. Not as helpful as i thought it would be but i can also admit that im not in a good enough space to judge this fairly. My thoughts arent just loud, they constantly remind of how much i dont deserve anything. I will agree with keeping my hand on the wheel though. My wheel is my wife and if i wouldn't be able to hang on to her then I would have just let go. My wife is who saves me every day and she accepts that responsibility too. Shes my hero.
I think this works for the types of thoughts identified but not all intrusive thoughts are like this. I have intrusive thoughts that are violent. I'm not worried that I'm actually going to commit acts of violence, but the thought itself is unpleasant and ruins my day. This would not help in that case.
Thank you very helpful
Showing this to my friends and family this wow
What to do about horrible imaginations that sometimes can feel real even if they aren't 😢?
Thank you ma'am ❤
Everything is okay but discussion is a out thoughts
Ehat about the thoughts that are actually about a real truth
Like example a function is coming so thoughts related to that
Thank you for taking the time to make this. Excellent work, very helpful.
I love your videos and have shared this with several people. I'm a psychiatrist and though I don't typically have a chance to do much therapy in my work managing medications, I love the skills you teach and have shared your videos with my patients
Thank you for your gift of knowledge and help to the world!!
My kind of intrusive thoughts are like … blah blah blah minding my PEACEFUL business… brain; mmh too quiet too calm … WHAT IF A PLAN CAME CRASHING ON YOU NOW? How about when’s the last time you spoke to your mom?
Guilts + end of life scenario. This is next level fucked up. I just want to know if there’s a specific name for that or type of therapy cause the thoughts mentioned here are not at all what I experience.
Thank you thank you thank you so much. Why did I not search for this topic earlier?
I was somewhat able to deal with the intrusive thoughts that would pop up related to a real thing playing out in my life. To the point that I feared nothing in my surroundings. Not wars, not anything. But then, from one day to the other after a cataract surgery, overwhelming anxiety is running my life from the moment I wake up. And it seems like the mind just nods in approval, yep everything is terrible. And you will never get out off this anxiety. How to combat these thoughts? I see sooooo many people online talking how many years they havr been suffering from morning anxiety stretching throughout the entire day and sometimes night. How to deal with anxiety that is not related anymore to an event??
Why do yanks talk so much .. this is 10 mins of babbling .. not intrusive.. a million thoughts got watch this story for a 8 year old no wonder yanks are dumb.. look what therap6 looks like
Thank you
0:17 was hella triggering. Thanks for throwing random screaming into these videos….
It's killing me😢😢😢 what do I fill to dai
This is so fun and great
How do I not be overbearing to people. I loose control of myself when I talk to people cause I get excited and just can’t stop talking, I also don’t know how to make light conversation. Eventually people just don’t want to deal with that anymore and so far I haven’t been able to change it so what do I do?
What if I tell my anxiety "You're loud, you're useless AND You're annoying. I'm gonna keep living now, thanks, bye". Is that still considered fighting or am I acknowledging these thoughts as they are? 😶
This video really inspired me and helped me out. Thank you so much!
Jesus take the wheel !!!🙏
A personal thank you. I was struggling with anxiety and this video of yours has helped me so much to calm down. Big thank you..
8 days ago, while listening to nostalgic music from my old school days, the image of a person I really dislike randomly popped into my head. Since then, my brain kept inserting that image into old memories, songs, and even daily thoughts.
What scared me wasn't the image itself—it was the fear that it would ruin my nostalgia and become attached to memories that matter to me. So I kept testing myself: "Is it gone?" "Can I enjoy this song like before?" But I realized the testing and fear were keeping the loop alive.
Now I'm trying to stop treating it like a problem to solve. The image doesn't change my past, my memories, or reality. Instead of fighting it, I'm focusing on my life, my music, my studies, and my goals.
Great video, I love it! Greetings from Colombia
Sometimes my thoughts scare me
My throughs scare me intrusive thought bus wants to run my bully over LOL
Does this also apply for when you tend to catastrophize? I have intrusive thoughts that are Terrifying
Thanks, I really needed this
I'm glad you explained it to me like I was 5 YO 😂🫰🏽
This sounds super helpful. I'm gonna use this tool to handle two major Intrusive thoughts of mine that've been tormenting me in recent months. I'm terrible at dealing with them, terrible enough to let them give me a chronically stiff neck and shoulders, and even migraine. My conditions might need some in-person professional help, but in the meantime, I'll use this technique. Thank you🥹
So helpful to me
Omg, this is totally me!
You don’t know how many times I’ve have gotten to my church parking lot and sat in the car. Then turn the car back on and go home.
This is so good! I love it!
I like the “defuse” tactic against negative thoughts🙂
Help
So bad thouf
The answer is: do not ‘manage’ them at all. Just let them appear and pass.
The Bible tells us how to deal with negative thoughts. It works. What I do is just use the word of God. If I have a thought that I know is negative, I just say in my mind I take this thought captive and bring it under submission to the shed blood of Jesus. The Bible is clear resist the devil and he will flee from you. Say it out loud. It takes time and discipline, But if you do it daily it becomes habit. If I have a thought that is just anxiety, I lay it at the feet of Jesus. Then I pray for the peace that go's beyond understanding until that peace comes over me.
Funny that the Bible had the answer to all this 2000 years ago. Prayer is a strong weapon against negative thoughts and anxiety.
Very good explanation!
Love naming the thoughts. I think this will really work. This is a lot like the book The Energy Bus.
When you live with bipolar 2 you don’t control your mood