In time, you will see that being kind and fair to yourself results in more positive emotions. How did questioning the distorted view change your feelings? You will start to notice that distorted thoughts trigger negative emotions like guilt, sadness or anger. Write down your feeling before challenging the idea and afterward. If you keep a notebook of distorted thoughts and challenges, make sure you also record your emotions. Even though you have an A+ in the course and cannot possibly fail because of one poor grade, you think “I will surely fail this class.” Ask yourself “is this true?” If not, then think of a more realistic thought to take the place of the negative one. Think of a more balanced and realistic thought to take the place of the distortion. When you have a distorted thought, ask yourself “is this accurate?” If a friend said this about himself, what would you say? You would probably offer a counter-argument.Ĭhallenge yourself in the same way. The next step is to write down the negative thought or cognitive distortion and challenge it. Evernote has lots of templates that you can use, or you can make your own. To make things easier, you could use try using a note-taking app like Evernote. Keeping track of them is very important so that you can later challenge them. Take note of any cognitive distortions or similar ANTs and write them down. Pay particular attention to your thoughts. For more information about cognitive distortions, check out this blog post. So, how can you tell when you are experiencing ANTs? Learn to recognize cognitive distortions. However, they are often plausible enough that you believe them. Usually, these thoughts are distortions, meaning that they are not accurate. The very first step in dealing with automatic negative thoughts is to recognize them. 1: Recognize Negative or Distorted Thoughts Here is a step-by-step guide to challenging automatic negative thoughts. The good news is that with consistent practice, you can challenge and replace ANTs with thought patterns that are more adaptive. These thoughts can trigger depression and anxiety and keep you from focusing on what’s important. Everyone in the whole world has automatic negative thoughts, but people with anxiety and depression are more likely to react strongly to them. In their study, the researchers selected a group of individuals who were diagnosed with social anxiety disorder, and then administered them automatic thought questionnaires. You are usually not aware of the thought itself and are more likely to notice the intense emotional reaction following the thought. The problem with these types of ideas is that they often involve cognitive distortions that are punishing emotionally. Automatic negative thoughts are not based upon reason and deliberation. That is why they are called automatic negative thoughts (ANTs). They are quite common and usually occur without much thought. Have you ever thought about how much time you spend replaying negative events in the past, focusing on parts of your life that you don’t like or worrying about the future? These types of thoughts are called automatic negative thoughts. In this blog post, you’ll learn how to challenge these automatic negative beliefs. The last blog post covered cognitive distortions and how these can hold you back.
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