Where negative thinking comes from and how to control it
Miscellaneous / / June 30, 2023
You can’t completely get rid of bad thoughts, but you can reconfigure them.
We all have bad thoughts sometimes. And it's completely natural. After all, our thought process depends on our experience, and it can be both positive and negative. But when negative thinking becomes the norm, it leads to all sorts of problems, including social anxiety, low self-esteem, and even depression. To avoid serious consequences, you need to understand how negative thinking works and in what ways it can be controlled.
Why Negative Thinking Occurs
Our thought process is closely related to how we feel. When we are happy with everything, as a rule, this is reflected in our thoughts. If we are happy, then we can positively evaluate your career, personal relationships or appearance. Conversely, if we are anxious or unhappy, we are more likely to be overwhelmed by negative thoughts. They may be related to stress at work, our complexes or doubts about the fidelity of friends.
In the 1970s, the psychologist Aaron Beck
suggested that negative thought patterns, which he called "negative schemas", reinforce unpleasant emotions. In his book Cognitive Therapy and Emotional Disorders, he explainedthat the content of our thoughts affects our mood. It's a vicious circle: if you're already feeling anxious or depressed, giving in to negative thinking can make your condition worse.Beck's work has often been relied upon by a variety of psychologists over the past 50 years. One of them notedthat "negative interpretation cognitive bias" may be a factor that prolongs depressed mood. Others have done research that showedthat students' involuntary thoughts were closely related to self-esteem.
Thus, if you regularly indulge in negative thoughts, it can worsen your already fragile mental health and cause a bad mood, low self-esteem and anxiety.
Worse still, a negative thinking propensity makes it more likely that you will constantly analyze past mistakes and dwell on defeats. Negative bias, that is, our predisposition to focus on negative experiences, clouds our views and judgments. Any decisions start to seem bigger than they really are, making it harder for us to figure out how to deal with difficult situations.
Depression and negative thoughts are interconnected and reinforce each other. When both of these factors are present, the cycle “bad thoughts - bad mood” is launched. Breaking this vicious cycle and avoiding the negative bias trap requires the ability to recognize and deal with unwanted thought patterns.
How to deal with negative thinking
There are two steps to managing the frequency with which you have bad thoughts and reducing the impact they can have on your life.
First you need to recognize the manifestation of negative thinking in a timely manner. involuntary unpleasant thoughts often accompanied by an unstable mental state. For some people, they persist for years and become so habitual that it may take time to learn to notice them. As soon as you start thinking about any situation, pay attention to your thoughts. Negative thinking might look like: "I'm going to fail this interview," "I'll never lose weight," "No one cares about me."
The next step is to explore the course of your thoughts, which arise automatically. You may notice that such judgments come down to an all-or-nothing formula. Instead of letting them control your emotions, ask yourself how true and useful your thoughts are. If they don’t help you in any way, it’s time to shift your attention and rebuild your thought patterns.
Your first impulse may be to force yourself think about the good. But in order to manage negative thinking, you need to be engaged in the transformation of thoughts, and not their replacement. This will require changing how you react and controlling the impact negative thoughts have on your life.
Find out more🥴
- Why we wind ourselves up and how to stop doing it
How to rewire negative thinking
Distance yourself from thoughts
Start seeing them as subjective. For example, you can say out loud or to yourself, "I've got the idea that I'm not doing my job well" or "I've got the idea that I'm all alone." In this way, you will move away from the inner critic, which makes you accept distorted thoughts as truthful ones. In addition, this practice will allow you to simply observe your thoughts without actively interacting with them.
Keep a diary of thoughts
Write in it the date, time, event that caused emotionand the resulting negative thought. To tame your experiences, you need to give them a name. Learning to name your feelings and thoughts related to them will help you track how external triggers and internal beliefs relate to each other.
Use decatastrophization methods
Negative thinking often leads to catastrophizing − cognitive distortion, because of which we greatly exaggerate any unpleasant events. If after one mistake you feel like the worst is about to happen, decatastrophizing can prevent a negative train of thought. To do this, try asking yourself:
- What am I worried about?
- How likely is it that what I worry about will become a reality?
- If my fears are confirmed, what would be the worst thing that happened?
- What is most likely to happen if my feelings are justified?
- Despite all my worries, how likely is it that I will be fine in a week (month, year)?
When you learn to recognize negative thoughts, you can control them, and therefore reduce their impact on your emotional state. By paying attention to your thoughts and questioning them, you will protect yourself from cognitive distortions and preserve your mental health.
Read also🧐
- 5 Irrational Thinking Patterns That Pull You Down
- Everything will be bad: what is catastrophic thinking and how to get it under control
- How to change your mindset and make your life better