Your thoughts determine the way you view yourself and the world around you. Beliefs grounded in pessimism can negatively affect your emotions, feelings and mental health. When we focus too much on them, they become detrimental to our health and well-being, often contributing to symptoms of mood and anxiety disorders.
Fortunately, with some positive reframing, we can overcome these negative thought patterns and improve our health.
Are Negative Thoughts Normal?
From an evolutionary standpoint, negative thoughts are normal. In early human history, paying attention to negative threats was a matter of life and death. Those more attuned to danger were more likely to survive and pass down the genes that made them more attentive.
As a result, experts have noticed that humans are predisposed to think negatively and are more inclined to engage deeply with these emotions than positive ones. Essentially, our positive emotions tell us everything is okay and that there’s no need to think about them as much.
Our nonstop, always cautious voice is excellent for survival but also has a dark side. When you get stuck listening only to these negative thoughts, you start to avoid situations that trigger those thoughts. The unwanted thoughts can cause us to lose focus on more important things in our lives, and ultimately, the more we try to avoid them, the more they stick around.
For example, your negative thoughts might tell you not to speak up in class or at a meeting for fear that people will think you’re dumb. The fear of feeling humiliated can cause nervousness and an increased heart rate. At the same time, you might experience a cognitive reaction — overthinking the outcomes and constantly wondering about the right thing to say. Even though these are just thoughts, we might treat them as truths we must avoid, fix or suppress.
Getting stuck in these negative thought patterns can stem from or even worsen symptoms of anxiety and mood disorders.
What Causes Negative Thinking?
Addressing the following underlying factors can help you better understand where negative thoughts originate.
Childhood Experiences
Childhood experiences shape how we interpret the world and may leave a lasting impact on our thoughts and behaviors. Growing up in a critical or emotionally neglectful environment may lead to self-doubt and negativity in adulthood. When children receive repeated messages that they aren’t “good enough,” those beliefs become ingrained, causing them to view mistakes as personal failures.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD can fuel negative thinking because of its association with intrusive and repetitive thoughts. People with OCD might experience obsessions that can lead to anxiety or compulsive behaviors aimed at neutralizing those fears. These compulsions can reinforce the belief that these scenarios are real threats. As people with OCD engage with these thoughts, they may feel trapped in a cycle of negativity.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
GAD fosters a mindset of constant worry and involves individuals dwelling on worst-case scenarios or potential setbacks. This constant worry acts like a mental filter by amplifying the likelihood of negative interpretations of everyday situations.
A simple task, like a conversation with a colleague, might lead to anxious thoughts about miscommunication or judgment, making it difficult to focus on positive possibilities or realistic outcomes.
Depression
Depression can be closely tied to negative thinking because it alters how a person perceives themselves and the world.
It often comes with cognitive distortions, where individuals minimize positives and magnify negatives. A person might dismiss their achievements or view small setbacks as major failures. This may feed into their feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Traumatic experiences leave an intense psychological impact, which can shape thought patterns and responses to everyday situations. People with PTSD may interpret neutral or safe situations as threats based on past trauma, leading to heightened anxiety and hypervigilance. This can cause a constant sense of negativity as their minds remain on high alert for potential danger.
Types of Negative Thought Patterns
Negative thought patterns can be pervasive and self-reinforcing. Recognizing them is the first step to reframing them into healthier perspectives:
- All-or-nothing thinking: All-or-nothing thinking is a black-and-white way of viewing the world, where things are seen as either entirely good or bad. It disregards the nuances and middle ground of real life, leading to feelings of inadequacy when perfection isn’t achieved.
- Jumping to conclusions: This thought pattern involves making judgments without enough evidence to support the conclusion. It may manifest as “mind reading”, where a person assumes they know what others are thinking or “fortune telling”, where they predict a negative outcome.
- Personalization: Personalization happens when people take responsibility for events outside their control. This can foster self-blame and may reinforce a negative self-image.
- Labeling: Labeling entails a person assigning titles to themselves or others based on a single event. This mindset can prevent empathy and self-compassion and make people feel stuck rather than see the potential for growth or change.
- Overgeneralization: Overgeneralizing is when one incident becomes the basis for broad conclusions about a person or the world. This thought pattern makes small setbacks feel like defining moments, creating a skewed perspective where isolated events become universal truths.
Examples of Reframing Negative Thoughts
Mental and emotional reframing entails rethinking our automatic responses. Here’s how to rephrase negative thoughts into more positive and helpful ones:
- All-or-nothing thinking: Negative thought: ‘If I don’t follow my diet perfectly today, I’ve completely failed.” Reframe: “Making progress is about consistency, not perfection. I can enjoy treats and stay on track with my goals.” In this reframe, you allow flexibility and focus on a balanced approach.
- Jumping to conclusions: Reframing jumping-to-conclusion thoughts encourages patience and helps prevent unwanted worries from building up. Negative thought: “My friend/partner didn’t reply to my text. They must be upset with me.” Reframe: “There could be many reasons they haven’t responded. I’ll wait and check in later if I’m still concerned.”
- Personalization: Negative thought: “My team didn’t win because I wasn’t at my best.” Reframe: Many factors contribute to a team’s performance. I did my best, and I can continue improving.” Reframing personalization helps you recognize that you’re only one part of the situation and that external factors play a role, too.
- Labeling: Negative thought: “I’m a failure because I didn’t succeed at this project.” Reframe: “This project didn’t go as planned, but that doesn’t define who I am. I can learn from this and apply it to future projects.” Reframing labels means considering setbacks as opportunities for growth and change.
- Overgeneralization: A helpful reframe involves viewing each event as unique. Negative thought: “I didn’t do well in this interview. I’m never going to get a job.” Reframe: “This was one interview among many. I can prepare differently for the next one, and every experience helps me grow.”
5 Tips to Reframe Negative Thoughts
Mental health professionals can teach you how to reframe thoughts that are harmful to your health, though there are a few ways you can detach from the critical voice and practice cognitive reframing on your own.
1. Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a practice with roots in meditation. It involves detaching from your thoughts and emotions to view them as an outside observer. The method can help you become more conscious of your thoughts and build self-awareness to reframe negative thinking. The goal of mindfulness is to gain control of your emotional reactions by allowing the logical side of your brain to take over.
In moments you feel anxious or stuck in negative thinking patterns, take a moment to pause. Focus on the world around you using your five senses. Notice the difference between being stuck in your thoughts and being in the present moment as felt through your five senses. Note the thoughts plaguing your mind, and rather than avoiding them, acknowledge them without judgment. It can take several tries, but mindfulness may help you break free from the pattern of negative thoughts and keep you calm.
2. Be Your Own Best Friend
When you wake up, first try feeling gratitude for the new day. If you feel negative thoughts creeping in, think of past successes and the feelings that came with them. Write down daily affirmations for yourself, turning those negative thoughts into something positive. This might put you into the right head space to take on your day with optimism. While we may be hardwired to think more about negative thoughts, working on positive thought patterns is worth it.
Be your own best friend by being nice to yourself. Identify negative thoughts and keep track of moments when they occur most often. Release the thoughts rather than dwelling on them and then reframe them. When you’ve discovered why you are so mean to yourself, consider what your best friend would say to you. Then tell yourself the positive affirmations you need to hear.
3. Label Your Thoughts
Another positive reframing tip is to label your thoughts for what they are rather than accepting them as literal truths. Next time you have a negative thought, try slowing it down and adding a label such as “I am having the thought that…” This will help put distance between yourself and the thought. From here, you can label negativity and cognitive distortions — negative or biased thoughts — and increase your self-awareness.
For example, jumping to conclusions is a distortion that can cause you to make assumptions about what others are thinking or to have negative beliefs about how events will turn out. Others might overgeneralize by applying what happened to them in one experience to all future experiences, triggering anxiety and making negativity seem inevitable. Label these thoughts as “jumping to conclusions” or “overgeneralizations” since that’s exactly what they are.
4. Question Your Thoughts
Cognitive restructuring can help you challenge your thoughts. Question negative thought patterns as they occur by asking yourself:
- Are my thoughts realistic?
- How likely is it that the negative scenario will happen?
- How often has the negative scenario occurred in the past?
- What is the worst possible outcome of the negative scenario?
- What will I gain from thinking these thoughts compared to what will I lose?
Your answers to these questions can help you face challenges with more helpful thinking. When you notice and label your thoughts, questioning them can help you reframe them and make them positive.
5. Use a Thought Diary
An excellent cognitive reframing tip is to use a thought diary. Journals can be a powerful tool to reframe negative thinking, allowing you to track unhelpful thought patterns and learn how specific situations and beliefs might trigger emotional reactions.
For example, a thought diary entry might break down your thought process throughout a meeting and the emotional reactions caused by the negative thought pattern. By the end of your analysis, you can replace these irrational thoughts about embarrassment with more accurate, helpful and positive ways of thinking.
Contact Merrimack Valley Psychological Associates in Andover for Support
Restructuring and reframing negative thought patterns takes practice and awareness. While this isn’t something that will happen overnight, you might notice a positive difference by following these techniques and applying them to your everyday life. However, it may be time to seek professional support when your negative thoughts stem from deeper issues or worsen anxiety or depression.
At Merrimack Valley Psychological Associates, our mental health professionals can teach you how to reframe thoughts that might be causing you stress, anxiety or depression. Through cognitive-behavioral therapy, you can learn to be mindful of your negative thoughts and start feeling in control of how you feel.
To start your mental health journey, contact us today.