One maxim of self-development I sense is true is that the way out of any stressful situation is to "go through it." How does the approach apply to reducing stress-producing thought-attacks?
Everything depends upon our ability to inwardly discriminate between thoughts and feelings that are for us as opposed to those that are against us. Whenever confronted with an onslaught of internal impressions, the most powerful tool you have is to go silent. Step away from the situation inwardly by bringing everything that is going through you into your deliberate field of attention. There is a native unity in a silent mind that is able to both witness and "taste" the thoughts and feelings passing through it. It is this internal field of silence that reveals the character of any impressions and shows them for what they are. It's hard to make a mistake when your first wish is to see these thoughts and feelings instead of just unconsciously turning your will over to them.
I usually feel really good about things and less and less attached to the conditions around me in my life. However, sometimes I get thoughts (on a deeper level) that one might never imagine a positive person like me thinking, and they are possibly more negative than anything I thought of before my self-study.
Don't fight this new awareness. The wrong parts of us tell us that a "good" person doesn't have dark thoughts. This causes us to resist the state, which in turn breathes life into it. This is how we fall into the hands of negative states. It is trickery. Learn to watch everything and judge nothing. Stay quiet. All self-harming states must come and go if you will work at this. Lastly, in the light of these lessons, consider Christ's instructions to his disciples that they "resist not evil."
Where do all of these tormenting thoughts come from that we hear as voices within us? I think if I knew the truth of their origin, they wouldn't overcome me so easily. Can you shed some light on this mystery?
Rest assured that for now where these voices come from is not as important as the fact that they exist. Persist with your inner work, particularly working at becoming increasingly conscious of these voices, and something unthinkable will occur: Bit by bit you will be able to see into the nature (that does not belong to any individual) from which these inner voices of conflict arise. Like all ecological niches, everything has its place. Our place is within the higher life, where these voices either have no consequence or eventually disappear.