Automatic negative thoughts (negative thoughts that often distract you when you are trying to focus on something or consciously trying to relax) can impact the way we feel, and cope with stressful events in our lives. During the pandemic, these negative automatic thoughts are likely to increase and can significantly influence our mental, and socio-emotional well-being.
Automatic Negative Thoughts (ANTS) can come to play a role in our behavior without even consciously realizing it and may sometimes become difficult to control.
Becoming aware of your own ANTS can help in increasing self-awareness, and replacing such thoughts with more positive or adaptive thoughts, thereby, establishing an influence on how we are going to feel and behave. These adaptive thoughts have a positive influence both on your physical as well as emotional health.
Below is a list of ANTS that you may have had at one point of time or the other -:
Magnification and Minimization: Exaggerating or minimizing the importance of events. One might think that his or her achievements are not important at all, or they may think that they make the biggest mistakes in the world.
For example: I do not deserve anything good since I have made a lot of mistakes in life.
Catastrophising: Perceiving only the worst possible outcome of a particular event occurring.
For example: I know I am not going to survive this illness.
Over-generalisation: Drawing a broad conclusion based on a single event or a few events and applying the same in nearly all situations.
For example: I failed in saving my job, I will always fail everywhere.
Magical Thinking: The belief that one’s actions influence unrelated situations.
For example: I have always been a good person, bad things can’t happen to me.
Personalisation: The belief that one is accountable/ responsible for events that are actually out of their control/ influence.
For example: My spouse fell sick, I should have taken better care of him.
Jumping to conclusions: Broadly interpreting situations with little to no evidence for the same.
For example: She thinks I am weird, so she will not be my friend.
Emotional Reasoning: The belief that one’s emotions provide a picture of how things really are.
For example: I feel like a bad husband, so I must be one.
Disqualifying the positive: Identifying and recognizing only the negatives of a situation, while neglecting the positives.
For example: They appreciated me but I know I made more mistakes than did well.
“Should” statements: The rigid belief that things must be in a particular way, and not in any other way.
For example -: I should always be strong, and not cry.
All or Nothing Thinking: Thinking in extremes, and either-or manner. It often involves using words like “always”, “never” etc.
For example: I will never be able to do anything right.
Now, try to address your negative thoughts and restructure them with adaptive thoughts:
