Self Help & Intrusive Thoughts Colouring Book
Don't Take the Bait: A Guide to Managing Unwanted Intrusive Thoughts
What our clients say:
“I read your book and absolutely loved it – every few pages felt like it was one of the sessions we had with some incredibly informative comments that I hadn’t really processed before”
Male, 30s
This digestible e-book is a practical, therapist-written guide for people struggling with intrusive thoughts, OCD, rumination, and anxiety. It is designed for those who feel distressed by unwanted thoughts and are caught in cycles of reassurance-seeking, mental checking, avoidance, or overthinking. The focus is not on eliminating thoughts, but on learning how to respond to them differently so they lose their grip on your life.
Based on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), an evidence-based approach commonly used in the treatment of OCD and intrusive thoughts, the e-book explains why these thoughts feel so convincing and threatening. You’ll learn how common coping strategies—such as suppressing thoughts, analysing their meaning, or seeking certainty—often maintain anxiety and keep intrusive thoughts coming back stronger.
The e-book teaches practical skills to help you disengage from rumination, reduce compulsive responses, and relate to intrusive thoughts without fear or avoidance. You’ll learn how to stop monitoring your mind constantly, respond to thoughts without reassurance, and refocus on living in line with your values—even when anxiety is present.
This guide is suitable whether you are self-managing intrusive thoughts, waiting for therapy, or using it alongside ongoing OCD treatment. It offers a clear, compassionate alternative to reassurance-based self-help and is written to be used at your own pace, without pressure or rigid rules.
Please read this carefully to make sure this e-book is the right fit for you.
Format: Digital e-book (PDF)
Length: Approximately 30 pages.
Approach: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) & Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
This e-book will:
Help you understand intrusive thoughts and OCD-related rumination
Explain why reassurance, checking, and mental analysis keep you stuck
Teach ACT-based ways to respond differently to intrusive thoughts
Support you in reducing mental struggles and mind-monitoring
Encourage living in line with your values, even when anxiety is present
This e-book will not:
Eliminate intrusive thoughts or anxiety
Provide reassurance about specific fears or themes
Replace therapy or personalised clinical support
Offer a step-by-step exposure programme
Cover every possible method for managing intrusive thoughts as it is beyond it’s scope
Act as crisis or emergency support
Important to know:
Progress comes from practice over time, not a single read
Discomfort may still show up while learning new responses
This guide is designed to support self-help, not rush recovery
If you’re currently in crisis or feel unable to keep yourself safe, this e-book is not suitable on its own and seeking immediate professional support is important.
As this product provides immediate access to our intellectual property, we’re unable to offer refunds once purchase has been completed. Thank you for your understanding.
Prefer to listen?
The audiobook is now available and covers the full content of the e-book, narrated by a clear and emotive voice. It’s ideal if you find it easier to absorb information through audio, or want to engage with the material during commutes, walks, or rest time.
All the same ACT-based skills and guidance are included — just in a format you can listen to at your own pace.
Format: Audio (MP3) Length: Approximately 32 minutes
Click Here to Purchase Audiobook
The same terms, limitations, and suitability notes outlined above apply to the audiobook. If you are currently in crisis or feel unable to keep yourself safe, this is not suitable as a standalone resource.
As this product provides immediate access to our intellectual property, we’re unable to offer refunds once a purchase has been completed. Thank you for your understanding.
What our clients say:
Ingenius and creative!
Female, 30s
The Intrusive Thoughts Colouring Book A Creative Approach to Intrusive Thoughts, Images and Urges
Intrusive thoughts can feel intense, frightening and incredibly convincing.
They often arrive as urgent questions that don’t really feel like questions at all:
Did I leave the oven on?
Did I upset that person?
What if something terrible happens?
What if I lose control?
What if this thought means something about me?
For people experiencing OCD, anxiety or distressing intrusive thoughts, these worries can quickly lead to checking, reassurance seeking, replaying conversations, googling symptoms, avoiding situations or desperately trying to find certainty.
These strategies might provide relief in the short term. But over time, they can keep the cycle of intrusive thoughts, anxiety and compulsive behaviours going.
What if you responded differently?
The Intrusive Thoughts Colouring Book is a creative self-help tool designed to help you practise changing your relationship with frightening and unwanted thoughts.
Created by Tom Coates, a BABCP Accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapist and OCD specialist with lived experience of intrusive thoughts, the book combines mindful colouring with principles drawn from Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP).
Rather than reassuring you that your feared thought won’t happen, the book encourages something different:
Making space for uncertainty and learning that you don’t have to solve every thought your mind creates.
36 illustrated intrusive thought scenarios
Inside the book you’ll find 36 detailed colouring pages, each built around the kinds of intrusive thoughts, doubts and worst-case scenarios that people commonly experience.
Themes include:
Checking appliances, doors and everyday responsibilities
Fires, floods and catastrophic accidents
Relationship worries and social doubts
Health anxiety and symptom checking
Harm-related intrusive thoughts
Responsibility and fears of making mistakes
Uncertainty and “what if?” thinking
Everyday situations that an anxious mind can turn into a threat
Each illustration is designed to give you an opportunity to spend time alongside an uncomfortable thought or scenario without immediately trying to neutralise, avoid or resolve it.
A creative way to practise exposure to intrusive thoughts
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is an evidence-based psychological treatment commonly used for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD).
Exposure involves deliberately making contact with thoughts, feelings, images or situations that trigger anxiety, while response prevention involves practising stepping away from the compulsive behaviours normally used to obtain relief or certainty.
The Intrusive Thoughts Colouring Book takes inspiration from these principles and gives them a creative twist.
Each page is designed to take approximately 30–40 minutes to colour, creating an opportunity to notice the thoughts, feelings and urges that show up while continuing with the activity in front of you.
The aim isn’t to make intrusive thoughts disappear.
Instead, you can practise:
Sitting with uncertainty
Allowing uncomfortable thoughts to be present
Noticing anxiety without immediately trying to get rid of it
Creating psychological distance from your thoughts
Reducing the need to solve or answer every “what if?”
Engaging with feared scenarios in a playful and creative way
And there are no rules about how the frightening scenes need to look.
Colour the flames bright pink.
Make the flood water neon green.
Turn something your mind presents as terrifying into something ridiculous, colourful or completely unexpected.
Because sometimes the most powerful response to a frightening thought is simply picking up a colouring pencil and carrying on.
Who is The Intrusive Thoughts Colouring Book for?
The book may be useful for adults experiencing:
OCD and obsessive thoughts
Intrusive thoughts
Anxiety and excessive worry
Checking and reassurance-seeking behaviours
Health anxiety
Relationship doubts
Harm-related intrusive thoughts
Fear of uncertainty or making mistakes
It can be used independently as a self-help resource or alongside psychological therapy where appropriate.
It may also be a useful resource for CBT therapists, psychologists, counsellors and other mental health professionals looking for a creative way to introduce discussions around intrusive thoughts, exposure, uncertainty and psychological distance from thoughts.
Start changing your relationship with intrusive thoughts
You don’t need to win an argument with every thought.
You don’t need to prove that everything will be okay.
And you don’t need to wait until anxiety disappears before continuing with your life.
The Intrusive Thoughts Colouring Book offers a creative and compassionate way to practise allowing thoughts to be thoughts — even when they’re uncomfortable.
Take your time.
Notice what shows up.
Keep colouring.
And see what happens when you stay.
The Intrusive Thoughts Colouring Book by Tom Coates
Tom Coates
BABCP Accredited Cognitive Behavioural Therapist
OCD Specialist
The Intrusive Thoughts Colouring Book is available to buy now on Amazon.
The same terms, limitations, and suitability notes outlined above apply to the audiobook. If you are currently in crisis or feel unable to keep yourself safe, this is not suitable as a standalone resource.