The psychology of negative thinking

If you regularly experience negative thoughts, this cognitive distortion can sadly worsen an already poor mental health, leading to low mood, poor self-esteem, and anxiety.

To make things worse, a bias towards negative thinking will increase the likelihood that you’ll spend time ruminating on mistakes or dwelling on things that didn’t go as well as you had hoped. Negativity bias, or the propensity to focus on negative experiences, can cloud your judgement. Decisions will appear more complex than they truly are, which will make it harder to know how to handle difficult situations.

• Recognize negative thinking when it arises.
• Ask yourself if the thought is truthful or helpful.
• If the negative thought provides no value, shift your focus by rewiring your thought patterns.
• Manage negative thinking by changing the way you respond to it and control how much impact it has.

1. Create distance from your thoughts: Pay attention to your automatic thoughts and label them as subjective thoughts.
2. Start a thought diary: Journal down the date, the time, the event that triggered an emotion, and the resulting negative thought.
3. Use de-catastrophizing techniques: Negative thinking often leads to catastrophizing.

Ask yourself:

• What am I worried about? Is it likely that my worry will come true?
• What is the worst that could happen if my worry comes true?

Once recognised, negative thoughts can be managed to reduce the impact on your emotional wellbeing. This in turn will break the cycle of negative thinking.

By paying attention to your thoughts and interrogating their validity you can prevent cognitive distortions from skewing your beliefs and impacting your mental health.