Negative Anxiety Thoughts: Learn to Identify and Stop Them

According to cognitive therapy theories, your thoughts and values ​​determine the way you see yourself and the world around you. Pessimism-based thoughts and beliefs can negatively affect your feelings, emotions, and your mental health. These harmful perceptions are common problems that can contribute to symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders.

It is important that you know how to identify and stop the negative thoughts of anxiety so that they do not affect you and you fall into the spiral of emotional self-destruction. But before this, you must first understand what types of negative thoughts exist and what negative thinking patterns and beliefs are.

Self-destructive beliefs and negative thought patterns

To overcome negative thought patterns and self-destructive beliefs, It is important to understand the definitions and the differences between these two concepts.

Self-destructive beliefs

Your belief system is made up of your personal views, attitudes, and values. Your beliefs are always with you, shaping the way you see yourself and the world around you. Self-destructive beliefs can set you up for failure and dissatisfaction. For example, if you believe that your self-esteem is determined solely by your achievements, you will only be satisfied when you excel in your career, reach your goals, or reach your desired level of status.

Self-destructive beliefs fall into two categories: intrapersonal beliefs you have about yourself and interpersonal beliefs about your relationships.

• Intrapersonal: Perfectionism, approval, achievement
• interpersonal: Guilt, submission, fear of conflict

Negative thinking patterns

Unlike self-destructive beliefs, negative thought patterns are not always on your mind, they only arise when you are faced with a problem. Also known as cognitive distortions, These negative thoughts will come to mind in times of stress and reinforce your self-defeating beliefs.

For example, perhaps you have a self-defeating belief that your worth is defined solely by your accomplishments. You can feel good as long as you can consistently achieve your goals. However, when faced with unforeseen obstacles or obstacles, negative thought patterns can cause you to overanalyze or exaggerate the seriousness of a situation, which will ultimately trigger unfounded anxiety.

In such circumstances, you may start to have negative thoughts, such as labeling yourself a "failure" or blaming yourself for not reaching your goal. You may think, "I will never be a successful person" or "I am not destined for this." Over time, these thoughts can lower self-esteem and can even contribute to symptoms of depression and panic disorder.

Overcome these negative thoughts

Personal beliefs are learned and developed over time, which makes them very difficult to change. Similarly, thought patterns become a habitual way of thinking that is so ingrained that we often do not realize it is happening in the mind. However, there are ways to break the cycle of self-defeating beliefs and negative thought patterns.

To rise above your self-defeating beliefs and negative thoughts, start by acknowledging when these issues arise in your life. For example, look at your perspective on life and how you react to different problems when they happen to you. Do you face your problems head-on or get carried away by negative thoughts? Is life full of possibilities or do you see that the glass is always half empty?

After you begin to recognize self-defeating beliefs and negative thought patterns, regain control by challenging them. For example, if you feel incapable, ask yourself if it is true that others only accept you if you are "perfect." Are you really a loser?

Continue to question your beliefs and thoughts, replacing them with more positive and realistic ones. When you start to confront your negative views, you can begin to notice how many of them are not true in your life. Instead of assuming the worst, you may think to yourself that you are disappointed that you have not reached a certain goal, but You accept that you are learning and growing from your mistakes and adversities.

Developing new beliefs and ways of thinking will require extra effort and consistency on your part. By monitoring, confronting, and rethinking your negative thoughts and beliefs, you can "unlearn" or shift them into more nurturing, empowering, and encouraging ways of looking at your life. Over time, You may be able to change your thoughts and beliefs for others that are more realistic and also more realistic.

Step by step to end negative thoughts

In addition to the advice that we have given you above, you can also take into account the following steps to be able to start ending negative thoughts now.

The first step is to realize and stop your negative thoughts or "self-talk." Internal dialogue is what you think and believe about yourself and your experiences. It's like an ordinary comment in your head. Your self-talk can be rational and helpful. Or it can be negative and not helpful.

The next step is to ask yourself if your thoughts are useful or useless. See what you are saying to yourself. Does the evidence support your negative thinking? Some of your internal conversations may be true, or it may be partly true but exaggerated.

One of the best ways to see if you worry too much is to look at the odds. What are the probabilities or possibilities that the bad thing that worries you will happen? If you have a job review that has a small criticism among many compliments, what are the chances that you are really in danger of losing your job? The odds are probably low.

The next step is to choose a useful thought to replace the one that is useless. Keeping a diary of your thoughts is one of the best ways to practice stopping, asking and choosing your thoughts, this makes you aware of your internal dialogue. Write down any negative or unhelpful thoughts you have had during the day.

If you think you might not remember them at the end of your day, take a notepad with you so you can write down any thoughts as they go through your head. Then write helpful messages to correct negative thoughts. If you do this every day, accurate and helpful thoughts will soon come naturally to you.