The 6 most important types of negative thoughts and how to manage them.

A brief summary of the different types of negative thoughts that affect us emotionally.

Our mind is a place where all kinds of thoughts are projected in the form of ideas, images, opinions and beliefs that, like everything in this life, can be good, can be neutral and, of course, can be negative, very negative.

Negative thoughts are not something pathological, nor should we think that whoever has any of these thoughts throughout the day is a rather pessimistic person. No, they are part of our mind, but it must be said that sometimes they get out of control and bring with them a lot of discomfort.

There are several types of negative thoughts that we can identify in our mind, thoughts that can trap us in a vicious circle of negativity but, fortunately, there are ways to control them. Let's find out what are the main ones and how to solve them.

What are negative thoughts?

Since we have use of reason, all kinds of ideas and thoughts can pass through our head. There are positive, beautiful and motivating thoughts, cogitations that present us with ideas or images that help us to be happy, to think of a great past and a promising future; but there are also negative, ugly, murky and disturbing thoughts that make us believe that we are worthless, that we do everything wrong or that if something has to go wrong, it will.

It is not difficult to define what negative thoughts are. We can define them as those pernicious ideas that appear in our head without us looking for them and that produce all kinds of disturbing emotions.

They induce negative emotions, related to psychological discomfort. such as fear, anxiety and stress and, in case they occupy too much of our attention and time, they can bring damage to our mental health.

Although negative thoughts have been addressed by many psychologists and psychiatrists throughout history, it is worth mentioning the work of one of the founders of cognitive therapies, the American doctor Aaron Temkin Beck, who defined them in the 1960s. For Beck, these types of thoughts strongly determined our psychological well-being or, rather, were a direct source of discomfort.

In his 1983 definition, Beck gives negative thoughts the characteristics of being rigid, inflexible, absolutist and in the form of "I have to" or "I must", in imperative terms. In contrast, positive thoughts are flexible, possibilistic, adaptive and take on a "I would like that" or "I would like that" structure, in more desiderative and open terms.

Beck was of the opinion that automatic negative thoughts sabotage the best part of ourselves and, if we do not have the slightest control over them, they will end up provoking emotions such as insecurity, anxiety and anger, feelings that are the fuel that feed new thoughts of this type.

That is to say, negative thoughts provoke a negative emotional reaction in our mind, the same one that causes more negative thoughts to appear and we fall into a vicious circle from which it is difficult to escape..

Thinking negative thoughts attracts more negativity, invites things to go wrong. This is called a self-fulfilling prophecy that, if it happens, will not be a matter of fate or bad luck, nor because we do not have certain characteristics or skills, but because we have fallen into negativity, negativity that invades our mind and affects our ability to act.

The 6 most common negative thoughts

The negative thoughts that may come to mind can have any type of content, that is to say, they can be about ideas, events or very varied facts, varying greatly depending on each person. However, it is possible to elaborate a classification where we find the main types of negative thoughts according to their characteristics and the type of idea on which they are focused.

1. Dichotomous thinking

Dichotomous thinking is a type of rigid and inflexible thinking, without nuancesIt corresponds to what we would say culturally is black and white thinking.

It implies relying on the assumption that with respect to a topic or issue there are only two categories, which are mutually exclusive, and the existence of intermediate elements or nuances is obviated. That is, it is thinking in extreme terms. For example:

"Either I do it right or I don't".

"Now or never"

"You are either with me or against me"

"I have failed completely"

2. Fear of what people will say

The fear of what people will say is a type of thinking that we have all experienced. It is that psychological process that we worry that people will look at us with bad eyes because of the way we are dressed or fear that, when speaking in public, they will think we are bad at what we say..

It is any thought that makes us more concerned about what we think others think and say about us than what we feel or how we are.

Even though we are not certain to know what others are thinking about, since we cannot read other people's minds, this type of thinking can have a lot of power over us. Some examples:

"They'll say I'm a bore."

"They think I'm a klutz."

"They notice me because I walk funny."

"They will laugh at my stuttering."

3. Believing that something can go wrong

Many people need total certainty that things will go perfectly, because if they don't, they just don't do it. Believing that something can go wrong is a very powerful, frustrating and sabotaging negative thought, an idea that will end up being supported by our mind and that will make us give up in our endeavor, even before we have started.even before we have started. Some examples of this type of negative thinking are:

"I'm not good at this, so I'm quitting".

"It's bound to go wrong"

"It's not worth trying"

"Since I won't know how to do it well, I won't even try".

4. Generalizing the negative

Many people tend to focus only on the negative, which is why, when something bad happens, they think it will become a universal norm, When something bad happens, they believe that it will become a universal norm, i.e., they generalize the negative.In other words, they generalize the negative. They fail to realize that more than once success comes after a multitude of failures and that is why we should never give up.

"I haven't lifted a weight, so I'm never going to get in shape."

"I failed this exam, so it's not worth studying any further."

"This date has gone badly for me, I'll never find love"

"I don't know how to combine clothes well, this fashion thing is not for me".

5. Minimizing positive things

It is also a negative thought to downplay the good things. Minimizing positive things or attributing an external causality, i.e., that it has happened by the action of other people or by pure luck.This is a very common cognitive process in people whose mind has been invaded by negative thoughts, as is the case of depression. Some examples of this negative thinking are:

"I did well on the exam because it was so easy."

"I passed gymnastics because the teacher values only effort."

"I won at chess because my opponent let himself win."

"I was told I did well in the interview out of pure pity."

6. Dramatize

Playing the victim and creating melodrama is also typical of automatic negative thoughts.It appears just after something bad has happened to us. For example, it is typical that, after a breakup, it comes to mind that "I will never meet anyone like that again" or "What will become of me?"

What to do to counteract negative thoughts?

As we have seen, it is easy to fall prey to negative thoughts, trapped in a vicious circle that brings us negative emotions that, in turn, feed and fabricate new thoughts of this type.

To top it all off, these types of dynamics are like snowballs.They start small but as they roll downhill they get bigger, since negative thoughts can start with a small and innocent thought, released into our consciousness without any negative intention, but end up becoming a whole toxic ideology that corrodes us from the inside.

Fortunately, there are a series of strategies to prevent negative thoughts from taking control of our mind and, consequently, of our behavior. and, consequently, of our behavior. Let's take a look at some of them.

1. Observe the thought

As a general rule negative thoughts are the product of cognitive distortions, irrational thought patterns, or irrational thinking patterns.. If we observe them as if we were a spectator, not letting them take over our mind, they will dissipate.

It is advisable to think of them as if they were leaves floating down a river, since sooner or later they will go downstream and we will lose sight of them. It is difficult to avoid that these thoughts come to our mind, but if we let them go without thinking too much about them we will not let them cause us any discomfort.

2. Rethink the idea

Ruminations are excessive thought patterns.. We can think over and over again about an idea, convinced that the more we think about it, the more we will be able to solve it, even though this is a totally useless action that wastes our time and much of our energy.

Therefore, the best thing we can do is to rethink the idea that is the object of our rumination, find out what is true in our thoughts and discard what we have created in our minds before we start looking for a solution.

3. To act physically on the idea

Since the negative thought is going to burn us and make us angry, why don't we invest this psychic activation in physical exercise? Acting physically on the idea, although it is not a panacea, can help us to turn it into something useful, at least in the short term..

The idea is not to recycle the negative thought, but to exhaust it, to consume it through exercise, to keep the mind busy by making the body work and thus not fall into the trap of our own psyche. We can run, lift weights, do some sit-ups... With the body in motion the thought loses importance.

4. Avoid the stimuli that trigger the negative idea.

There can be many different stimuli that awaken these negative ideas in our mind. It is not easy to identify the triggers of our negative thoughts but, once we have found them, we can use the avoidance technique..

The ideal would be to get used to such stimuli so that our mind gets used to them being there and negative thoughts are not awakened but, in case they are too intense and it is possible to avoid them without affecting our lives too much, avoidance is a good option.

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