Thoughts are as much things as a hybrid car is. They are interdependent and as much the product of causes and condition and as much material as a Toyota Prius is.
Emotions and all the various conceptualisations we can come up with, are thoughts. While some may be more useful than the other, none is more special than the other. Not even emotions, not even the most painful ones. They are still thoughts.
Basically we don’t have to assign special values to thoughts that are painful or pleasurable. Once we understand what thoughts are, and what they are not, we could simply start to recognise them as such. One by one, recognising them as thoughts without assigning them any further value.