Negative automatic thoughts: 6 keys to manage them

What we mean by "mind" seems to be a succession of thoughts, images, and perceptions that rarely stops. Sometimes we consciously control our mental contents, but most of the time they work automatically, which makes our lives easier.

Negative automatic thoughts are a special case. These are events that cause us unpleasant emotions and interfere with the achievement of our goals; sometimes even a causal and maintenance role is attributed to these types of thoughts in psychological disorders, as is the case with depression.

• Related article: "The 12 types of obsessions (symptoms and characteristics)"

What are automatic thoughts?

Automatic thoughts are spontaneously arising images and verbalizations during everyday life. These types of thoughts appear constantly and are generally adaptive, since we cannot control our mind at all times, but some types of automatic thoughts favor the appearance of disorders.

The main problem with these thoughts is that we tend to take them as true even though we have no evidence to confirm them. As they appear naturally, automatic thoughts

fit our sense of identityeven when they are negative, and it can be difficult to distance yourself from them.

The psychiatrist Aaron T. Beck, known for developing the most influential theoretical and therapeutic model in the framework of cognitive therapy, stated that negative automatic thoughts are the immediate cause of depression symptoms, since they cause unpleasant emotions to appear and interfere with behavior.

Later this concept has also been applied to other disorders, particularly those related to anxiety, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, social phobia and generalized anxiety disorder.

Characteristics of negative automatic thoughts

Negative automatic thoughts share a number of traits that differentiate them from other mental contents. The characteristics that we will describe below refer especially to the analyzes carried out around depression.

1. Involuntariness

As the name suggests, automatic thoughts do not depend on the conscious mind but rather appear without our wanting it. They are an automatic consequence of the situations we encounter on a daily basis and it is not possible to control them before they appear, although we can handle them once they have arisen.

2. Pessimism

Negative automatic thoughts often contain pessimistic messages, particularly referring to ourselves and our capabilities or personal worth. For example, thoughts similar to "Even though I studied I will fail because I am stupid" are common in many people.

• You may be interested: "Self-concept: what is it and how is it formed?"

3. Counterproductivity

Pessimism carries self-fulfilling prophecies: since negative automatic thoughts make us doubt ourselves, if we take them as valid interfere with the achievement of our goals. In the example above, the person may pass if they study, but negative thinking will make it difficult for them to do so.

4. Plausibility

The fact that negative automatic thoughts are usually plausible in character makes it easier for us to identify with them. Also, heeding these thoughts leads to them becoming more realistic; If we believe that we are socially inept, anxiety is more likely to lead us to make mistakes in social interaction.

5. Distortion

Although they are credible, negative automatic thoughts are derived from distorted interpretations of reality. They are based on partial truths, but they ignore facts that contradict them and that they are equally true. This characteristic is related to the cognitive distortions that Beck also described.

How to handle automatic thoughts?

Below we will describe an effective procedure to learn how to identify and manage negative automatic thoughts. These steps are based on three techniques developed by Beck: Automatic Thought Tracking, the Four Questions Technique, and Reality Tests.

1. Write down the situation, emotion and thought

Negative automatic thoughts can be difficult to detect and work through at first, so start with a simple technique. When feeling an unpleasant emotion, such as sadness or nervousness, this will be used as a signal to record what thoughts or images arise. It is advisable to also note in what situation they occur.

2. Identify recurring thoughts

These types of thoughts tend to be quite idiosyncratic, so it is very common for each person to repeat certain messages. When recording automatic thoughts it is important to pay attention to which appear with special frequency; thus we could detect a tendency to catastrophism or perfectionism, for example.

3. Assess the degree of realism

Once we have learned to easily identify negative thoughts, it will be time to make the procedure more complex. A very useful strategy is to coolly reflect on the credibility we give to these thoughts and evaluate it from 0 to 100. The objective is to understand that, although they have part of the truth, we tend to overvalue it from the emotion.

4. Posing alternative thoughts

We can use the thought register to propose rational messages to replace the automatic ones; This is especially important in the case of recurring thoughts. Must ensure that these alternatives are realistic and not pessimistic.

Thus, if we frequently think “I'm just saying nonsense”, an alternative message could be “Sometimes I talk about things that don't interest others much”. We can also rate from 0 to 100 our degree of confidence in these rational thoughts.

5. Replace negative thoughts

As we normalize the previous steps as daily strategies, it will be easier for us to replace negative automatic thoughts with rational alternatives; with practice we can do it immediately by detecting negative thoughts. This will help us reduce the negative emotions that arise from them.

6. Do reality tests

Beck posed the reality tests as experiments that test hypotheses of the most relevant automatic thoughts. The type of test will depend on the thought and the alteration that we suffer. In this case it can also be useful to evaluate expectations from 0 to 100 before doing the test, and to evaluate success again afterwards.

For example, in a case of social phobia, the thought “I am unable to speak to strangers without getting too nervous ”by planning brief interactions with people we don't know (p. and. ask them what time it is) and gradually increase the challenge level.