How To Stop Obsessive Thoughts?

This doesn't sound like obssesive thoughts as such. It sounds like a problem of rumination ie to keep repeated going back over a past event in your mind which invariably brings up the orginal emotions. Quite often when we do this we attach additional unhelpful information and meaning to the event and it becomes larger in our mind.

In terms of how you deal with it probably depends on how you are feeling in yourself in the here and now. Do you feel you are depressed ie not feeling you are getting much enjoyment out of life and feeling gloomy about yourself and the future. If so it might be this that needs attending to so that you are not spending so much time dwelling on the past.

In terms of how you deal with your upsetting thoughts it might be good for you to think about what the purpose or goal behind them is? These thoughts are not meaningless. Are you for instance attempting to make sense of what happened?

Are you trying to protect yourself from people treating you badly in future. It is likely you need to think about situations that occurred in the past so you can move forward but not in the way you are doing right now. We usually start ruminating at night because there is nothing to distract us but I would suggest you don't just allow yourself to lie awake doing this.

Reading is often a good way to detach from unhelpful thought processes so if you are not dropping off to sleep after about half an hour it's better to get up and read for about half an hour to help you detach from these thoughts. If you have a smart phone you can often down load free apps to help you sleep, I've got andrew Johnsons relax lite its very good for calming the body down. If you can't afford therapy you can still get access to CBT self help material in your book store or online websites.

Maybe look into overcoming anger if you think this is affecting current relationships. But there is also stuff you could look at on depression improving self esteem , or trauma particularly if your anger comes from the experience of witnessing / experiencing violence in your early life.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.