Automatic Negative Thoughts

1 First there is an event/trigger

2 Next comes a thought

3 Then an emotion

Automatic negative thoughts are:

-shorthand

-almost always believed

-spontaneous

-presented in terms of should, must, or ought

-personal

-persistent and self-perpetuating

-differ from what we say out loud

-repeat certain things

-learned (but can be unlearned)

-plausible but not probable

-extreme

-generalized

-all or nothing

-self-fulfilling prophecies

What we need to do is challenge these automatic thoughts

Ask yourself these questions-

1 am I confusing a thought with a fact?

2 am I jumping to conclusions?

3 am I assuming my view of things is the only one possible?

4 what do you want? what are your goals? do you want to be happy and get the most out of life? is the way you’re thinking helping you achieve this, or is it standing in your way?

5 what are the advantages and disadvantages of thinking this way?

6 am I asking questions that have no answers?

7 am I thinking in all-or-nothing terms?

8 am I using ultimatum terms in my thinking?

9 am I condemning myself as a total person on the basis of a single event?

10 am I concentrating on my weakness and forgetting my strentghs?

11 am I blaming myself for something which is not really my fault?

12 am I taking something personally which has little or nothing to do with me?

13 am I expecting myself to be perfect?

14 am I using a double standard?

15 am I paying attention only to the bad side of things?

16 am I overestimating the chances of disaster?

17 am I exaggerating the importance of events?

18 am I fretting about the way things ought to be, instead of accepting and dealing with them as they are?

19 am I assuming I can do nothing to change my situation?

20 am I predicting the future instead of experimenting with it?