![]() We may avoid running into this friend or refuse to text them again. These thoughts will also likely influence our behaviors as well. We will feel like they really are ignoring us or intentionally trying to hurt our feelings. We will likely also end up feeling anxious, hurt, embarrassed, or frustrated at our friend for not texting us back. If we believe these thoughts, we’ll probably end up feeling pretty bad about ourself. I’m such a loser, why would I even have texted her in the first place?” She’s totally ignoring me right now, I know it. The automatic thoughts pop into our head saying, “She must not even like me. When we believe our automatic thoughts without any consideration for their accuracy, they can quickly take over our mental space.įor example, we may text a friend and not receive a response right away. However, these thoughts can often be irrational, unhelpful, or just downright incorrect. Our automatic thoughts pop into our minds, and we often believe them as being totally true. However, automatic thoughts can sometimes get out of control and impact our mood, actions, or ability to function. PERSONALIZATION: You see yourself as the cause of some negative external event, which in fact you were not primarily responsible for.We all experience automatic thoughts, they are a natural part of being a human. “I’m a loser.” When someone else’s behavior rubs you the wrong way, you attach a negative label to him” “He’s a damn louse.” Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded. Instead of describing your error, you attach a negative label to yourself. LABELING AND MISLABELING: This is an extreme form of overgeneralization. ![]() When you direct should statements toward others, you feel anger, frustration, and resentment. SHOULD STATEMENTS: You try to motivate yourself with should and shouldn’t, as if you had to be whipped and punished before you could be expected to do anything. This is also called the “binocular trick.”ĮMOTIONAL REASONING: You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: “I feel it, therefore it must be true.” MAGNIFICATION (CATASTROPHIZING) OR MINIMIZATION: You exaggerate the importance of things (such as your goof-up or someone else’s achievement), or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny (your own desirable qualities or other fellow’s imperfections). MIND READING: You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you, and you don’t bother to check this out.įORTUNE TELLING: You anticipate that things will turn out badly, and you feel convinced that your prediction is an already-established fact. JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS: You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion. ![]() In this way you can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday experiences. MENTAL FILTER: You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors the entire beaker of water.ĭISQUALIFYING THE POSITIVE: You reject positive experiences by insisting they “don’t count” for some reason or other. OVERGENERALIZATION: You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat. ![]() If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure. ![]() If so, practicing reappraisal when you find yourself thinking in this way might be helpful!ĪLL-OR-NOTHING THINKING: You see things in black-and-white categories. Below are some common negative thinking patterns – see if any of them sound familiar or are ways of thinking you notice yourself engaging in. Sometimes we may get stuck interpreting negative or distressing situations in a similar way without examining the evidence for that interpretation. Another activity to try is identifying negative automatic thought patterns. ![]()
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