Once you become aware of the ANT evaluate it and challenge it. Writing the thoughts down will help you recognize and ultimately, challenge them. Are you dwelling too much on the past? Remember, being aware of a problem is the first step in solving it. Look inside of your head and realize if you are you overthinking. How to challenge the never-ending cycle of automatic thoughts:ĭevelop the skill of identifying and listening to the negative messages you give to yourself. Taking responsibility for something that is not your fault, or seeing yourself as the cause of a negative event that has nothing to do with you. Language also includes “must” and “ought”. This often results in feeling guilty because you haven’t achieved what you “should” have. Having unrealistic expectations of yourself and others, and being rigid in your thinking. Whenever you encounter a stimulus that is related to a past negative experience, you will jump to conclusion that something bad will happen to you, without checking all the facts of the likelihood of this event to happen. Rejecting positive experiences and maintaining a negative belief even though it is contradicted by everyday experiences, or not enjoying a positive experience due to the belief that something bad will happen right away. When it comes to reality, everything comes in different shades and being realistic of the good and bad sides of a situation can be a real help of not overgeneralizing the events (if something bad happens, you tend to generalize saying everything goes wrong). Seeing things in black and white, a habit that usually turns out wrong. Negative automatic thoughts can hide under different truths we are telling ourselves, such as: The main goal of Cognitive Behavior Therapy is to help you break out of this vicious circle by helping you develop the skills in dealing with these negative automatic thoughts.Īutomatic thoughts can be positive (realistic, goal-oriented) or negative (distorted, unproductive and work against us achieving our goals) that can really turn any sort of situation into a negative one. For example, the more depressed you become the more automatic negative thoughts you have, which only makes you feel more depressed. These thoughts can trap you in a vicious circle and make you believe you are doomed to always feel this way. If we let them control us, thoughts can lead to anxiety, anger, depression, guilt, and hopelessness, and influence our overall well-being and the way we interpret everything that happens in our lives. Irrational thoughts lead to dysfunctional negative emotions that can be toxic and can affect the way we live. Thoughts influence our emotions, feelings, and behaviors. Have you ever realized you tend to see things in black or white, focus too much on negative or past events, compare yourself with others, and conclude this doesn’t bring you any benefits? If so, this is one of the situations where you might be caught up in the negative cycle of automatic thoughts. How to Challenge Automatic Thoughts: Our Mental Enemies
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