12 December 2020 | Negative Automatic Thoughts | Jessie Heng
Negative Automatic Thoughts (NATs), can lead to self-doubt, depression, anxiety, anger, irritability and low moods. They are not that helpful, or useful and yet we all have them. The difference between whether we accept them and believe them, or ignore or challenge them or accept them, will have an influence on how mentally healthy and happy our lives will be.
NATs, as first described by Aaron Beck, are a stream of thoughts that is negatively framed interpretations of what we think is happening to us. And they usually have an impact on our mood and our feelings, that isn’t positive.
According to Beck’s cognitive triad, someone who is depressed will automatically have a negative view of themselves, their experiences (that is, the things that the world around them causes to happen to them), and their future. According to this model, “the other signs and symptoms of the depressive syndrome” are “consequences of the activation of the negative cognitive patterns” (Beck et al., 1979).
Here are some of them that frequently visit our minds:
- All-or-Nothing Thinking
- Self-Limiting
- Should Statements
- Jumping to Conclusions
- Emotional Reasoning
- Re-runs Thoughts
- Mental Filter
- Disqualifying the Positive
However, positive automatic thoughts can offset the negative effects of both negative automatic thoughts and stress in general. People with frequent positive automatic thoughts are likely to respond to stress by feeling that their lives are more meaningful, while people with infrequent positive automatic thoughts are likely to respond to stress by feeling that their lives are less meaningful (Boyraz & Lightsey, 2012). The higher levels of positive automatic thoughts are correlated with higher levels of happiness (Lightsey, 1994). This indicates that in order to have better mental health outcomes, one should reduce their negative automatic negative thoughts and increase their positive automatic thoughts.
Remember that it takes time to get good at keeping your NATs in check. You’ll notice times when your NATs runs off on a tangent of terrible thoughts without you noticing, but give yourself a moment to remember that you have a choice. You can then implement thought-changing strategies and pick a better thought. The more you observe your NATs the better you’ll get at catching it in the act—and as you practice, the voice will get quieter and your inner cheerleader will take the lead.
Schedule a session with us now to explore how you can learn to turn the NATs down towards a better mental health.
*Partial Abstract from Resilient Mindset & Positive Psychology