Negative Automatic Thoughts

Have anyone heard this term before? I think maybe this is part of CBT. My psychologist said that thoughts affect our behaviour. Some thoughts become so real that we take them as facts. Negative automatic thoughts are difficult to identify. It is difficult to change ones thinking after a long time. Anyone knows how to control your thoughts? I have read online that it is helpful to keep a daily log of all your thoughts and emotions and review them when you are feeling better. Feel free to share tips everyone, thank you!

i do feel like your mindset can have an effect on the outcome. Its amazing what the brain is capable of...

What you might do is write out your thoughts on one side of a page--could do 2 columns on Word, and then on the other side of the page, you challenge the thought. On the left side of the page you title it 'distorted thought', and the right is 'rational thought.'

For example:

Distorted thought: Rational thought:

everyone hates me everyone doesn't know me

I'm a loser I aced my math test
You get the drift. It really helps if you take some time to really challenge your distorted thoughts with more realistic ones. I've been doing this for over 15 years, and find it very helpful, especially when something is really bothering me.

It is Automatic Negative Thoughts ... ANTS. The point in calling them this is to minimalize their importance.

You might try this: when you have a negative thought, immediately correct it, either by saying the correction out loud or thinking it. You can also stop giving yourself permission to think about something, by saying or thinking: "I don't have to waste my time thinking about that" or "I give myself permission to stop thinking about that". This technique becomes easier the more you practice it.

I see automatic negative thoughts as beliefs or impressions we have formed about specific things, which are then triggered by an event, and cause us to make an assumption about a current circumstance.

It has taken me a lot of time journaling and talking to therapists to unravel mine and begin to challenge them. I recommend journaling, drawing and reviewing how you reacted to specific events that day or week as good ways to identify and decipher these thoughts. A therapist will be helpful in deciphering them and finding the specific ways of interpreting events that works for you, so you can replace these self-limiting negative beliefs and expectations.

The worst thing about automatic negative thoughts is that they don't operate in isolation - one will feed into another.

i agree with so much of what was already said, for me, when those thoughts come to me, i try to notice them, simply notice them, and even if i get only one a week, they dont come to me near as often, and when they do, i get to pick them apart, not just wince at them

This is something that I am doing right at this moment with my therapist, I find it so challenging as I get them so often.

Whichever method we use, I think practice makes perfect. It is important to find something that works for yourself.

But it becomes hard to change when negative thinking has become a habit.

We culturaly imprinted to have negitive thoughts from birth. Keep that in mind.

That's why it is so difficult to kick the habit for negative thinking...

How to distinguish negative and normal thoughts?

I'm not sure I have a full grip on what those thoughts would include, but if they are what I think, I deal with them by realizing they might be correct. I'm not a fan of "benign interpretation". If someone is angry with me, an automatic negative thought could be that I actually did something to really upset them. It might not just be them having a bad day. If I'm afraid someone will get mad at me for something (which I am a lot), I realize they might actually be mad for real.

Backwards? Maybe. But just assuming everyone is fine with me, leaves me very, very vulnerable. Also, realizing they might be mad at me, makes me realize that well maybe they won't. I will just wait and see what happens.

Everyone will not love me. Everyone will not treat me fair. But I can probably deal with that.

In my own opinion, negative thoughts are those that affects you having a normal life

All thoughts are "Normal". Cultualy imprinted negitive thoughts fit what you see on TV news and Political commercials. If you see that you are thinking the way they do on TV, then you know it is culturaly Imprinted.

Negitive thoughts from depression usualy has bad feelings associated with them such as anger and depression.

If you have negitive oppinion of a political candidiate, it may be due what you saw on TV. Form your own thoughts based on your Heart. See with your own Heart.

Can you stop from having negative thoughts?

No, there will always be negitive situations in life. But you can break the habit of having negitive thoughts.

How do you do that?

That is what I wonder, then of course sometimes negative thoughts are appropriate so how does one determine what sort of negative thought it is. Or what if there isn't something you can replace it with? but yeah I think this is part of why talk therapy never seems to do much good and from my perspective my last therapy session didn't go to great.

Have you ever tried self-help CBT? It deals with negative automatic thoughts I believe, and helps you to train yourself on how you react to thoughts etc. Check out this website: www.getselfhelp.co.uk/

I have heard of this too. My therapist says the thought just eats away at us and drives us. I recently went through this while I was on the treadmill.

I kept saying, Im tired, why am I doing this, youre not losing any weight, just stop now.

Then another voice was saying, Keep going you can do this, SHUT UP AND DO IT.

I was literally fighting with myself, it was nuts.

Its really hard. Being bipolar and just with a way Im used to thinking, im getting into to the habit of shutting out the negative voice and just DOING it. Doing what I gotta do.

We must have the power to resist the urge of listening to these voices

It helps to stop yourself every once in a while and just notice what you're thinking. If it's negative, make the observation that you're on a negative track and then try to steer yourself to looking at the same topic in a different light.
Ex:
Thought: I'm totally going to fail my math test tomorrow. Then I'll fail math, then I'll flunk out of school, then I'll be totally worthless.
Stop yourself and think: I've worked as hard as I can and studied really hard. Maybe I won't fail after all.

This worked for me!

A post that may be helpful for you to read is this one.