Thought Patterns in Anxiety
What are ANT (automatic negative thoughts)?
Automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) are a trademark of anxiety and depression. People are often unaware of these negative thoughts. Therefore not realizing that they are the underlying cause of their fears, and negative physiological and psychological distress. ANTs are typically developed in early childhood and become inter-woven into an adversity coping style. This coping style comes to be replayed over and over as negative messages in various scenarios in life. Replayed deep in our subconscious brain, these old patterns cause great harm as we are unaware of what is happening.
For Example:
Most people that I worked with initially are frustrated by their own reactions to events in their lives. Feeling lack of control, they are seemingly stuck in a loop of behavior that feels automated. For the most part, the reactions they have are in fact outside of their immediate control. As these choices were not made with the logical, thinking part of the brain, their reactions are mainly automated reactions to pre-written subconscious programs based in faulty beliefs which are called ANTs.
Here is a list of sabotaging automatic negative thoughts (ANTs):
- Black and White or All or Nothing
With this style of thinking we see things as ALL good or ALL bad, nothing in between. Perfectionism is part of this style of thinking. Either we will do things perfectly well or perfectly fail to do them at all. - Mental Filter
With this style of thinking we pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively, so that our vision of reality becomes darkened and all positivity is filtered out. For example: you receive many positive comments about your work performance from a group of associates at work, but one of them says something mildly critical. You obsess about his reaction for days and ignore all the positive feedback. - Over-generalization
With this style of thinking we see a single negative event, such as a romantic rejection or a career setback, as a never-ending pattern of defeat by using words such as “always” or “never” when you think about it. - Jumping to Conclusions
With this style of thinking we interpret things negatively when there are no facts to support our conclusions. - Mind Reading
Without any concrete evidence we arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to us. We make a decision to believe that they do not like us, while in reality that is not the truth. - Fortune-telling
We make predictions that things will turn out badly without any concrete evidence. If we feel depressed we may think along the lines: “I will never get better. I am a hopeless case.” - Catastrophizing or Magnifying
With this style of thinking we exaggerate the outcome. If we have small mark on our skin, even before we have checked that it is malignant we perceive future negatively and tragically. We are already seeing ourselves on the death bed.The story that best describes this style of thinking is:‘A man stubbed his toe, then he started thinking, what if this toe gets infected, and the infection spreads, and then I have to amputate the leg, and then I lose my job and my wife, and then I end up begging on the street …the mind went from ‘I stubbed my toe’ to “I will end up broke, alone and on the street begging’. - Emotional Reasoning
With this style of thinking we assume that our negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: “I feel terrified about going on airplanes. It must be very dangerous to fly.” Or, “I feel angry. This proves that I’m being treated unfairly.” “I feel hopeless. The situation must really be hopeless.” - Labeling is an extreme form of black-or-white/all-or-nothing thinking.
With this style of thinking instead of saying “I made a mistake,” we attach negative labels to ourselves: “I’m a loser.” “I am such a fool” or “a failure” or “a jerk.” Labeling is quite irrational because you are not the same as what you do. Human beings exist, but “fools,” “losers” and “jerks” do not. These labels are just useless abstractions that lead to shame, anger, anxiety, frustration, guilt.
You may also label others. When someone does something that rubs you the wrong way, you may tell yourself: “He’s an idiot.” Then you feel that the problem is with that person’s “character” or “essence” instead of with their thinking or behavior. You see them as totally bad. This makes you feel hostile and hopeless about improving things and leaves very little room for constructive communication. - Personalization and Blame
With this style of thinking we hold ourselves personally responsible for an event that isn’t entirely under our control.
When a woman received a note that her child was having difficulty in school, she told herself, “This shows what a bad mother I am,” instead of trying to pinpoint the cause of the problem so that she could be helpful to her child. When another woman’s husband beat her, she told herself, “If only I was more beautiful/skinner/smarter, he wouldn’t beat me.” Personalization leads to guilt, shame and feelings of inadequacy.
Some people do the opposite. They blame other people or their circumstances for their problems, and they overlook ways they might be contributing to the problem: “The reason my marriage is so lousy is because my spouse is totally unreasonable.” Blame usually doesn’t work very well because other people will resent being blamed and they will just turn to defence and stonewall you. It’s like a game of hot potato no one wants to get stuck with it.
Conclusion
People that suffer from anxiety and depression often have one or many of these thinking styles. It is important to acknowledge that we struggling with ANTs. We are not born thinking this way, we learned to think this way. Since we have been thought how to think negatively we can also teach ourselves to change and learn new positive ways of thinking. This takes time, effort and discipline but it is possible and necessary if we wish to live more positive lives.