I have to consciously remind myself that my parents were and are wrong.

Sometimes I imagine the versions of them that live in my head gagged and bound in cages.

No, dad, it was not a self-fulfilling prophecy that ruined my life, it was child abuse. No, mom, I should not repress my own emotions to please others. I am a human being, not your fucking possession.

They'll be part of me for as long as I am alive, but sometimes I can shut them up.

I am trying to make something out of the ruins of my life. Not much luck so far. Therapy hasn't helped yet. I wish people would stop normalizing abuse. The bible belt is a cesspool of stubborn, deadly ignorance.

There is no "other" living in your head, it's all you. Understanding why this is happening to you is understanding you.

All knowledge is self knowledge. If you can understand why this bothers you so much, you can understand how to let it go.

You gotta examine you, self therapy. Or actual therapy if you struggle with honesty.

I do some repetitive tasks at work that trigger intrusive thoughts. Sometimes they are absurd, sometimes old memories, sometimes an annoying person that I barely know that slight me in big or small ways.

I let the happy one come and go but I try to block the ones that are useless, where you know that you are drinking the poison you should give to the person in your thought instead (don't poison people though). And just the thought of blocking them make them pop even more often.

So instead I decided to expect and even wait for the bad thoughts to come, and just be like "ah, there you are, thought". They become less threatening and annoying when you expect them and roll your eyes at them when they effectively do. That worked more or less for me.

I usually do the "piss drinking" thought process. It's something I read on Reddit a long time ago, in which two users were at each others throats, but then one of them went to check on the posting history of the other and saw that he was a piss drinker.

There are a lot of "special" people in here, so why are you letting a "piss drinker" take that much mental space?

Never accept criticism from someone you wouldn't take advice from.

I remind myself that an internet rando means absolutely nothing to me. Like the figurative "dirt on your shoulder" that you just brush off. It really helps to take a break from all things social media (and social media adjacent) on the internet for a while, too. Get interested in something else (tv show, hobby, book, music, whatever) for a while.

Same as land scalpers do to anyone who doesn't pay rent; kick them out

Hatred, anger, insomnia, self-loathing, political action, arguing on social media, and profound clinical depression.

Not necessarily good strategies, but that's not what you asked for.

Miles Edward O'Brien lives rent free in my head. As he should in everyone's. He's the most important person in starfleet history.

For more modern and corporal people, I just try to avoid things that make me think about a person, or minimize contact as much as possible. To varying degrees of success... Eventually they'll fade.

Unlike O'Brien.

This one is hard and need a lot of work. It’s easy to said it but hard to do.

Breathe. You have to let go. Build community with what you like