Negative thoughts

[Lexie1425]

Lately I've been keeping my anxiety under control pretty well. I definitely worry about my health and that something is going to happen to me. My doctor tells me that I am healthy and its just anxiety. So I've been working really hard to think positive and push any negative thoughts out. It is hard sometimes though. Sometimes I feel like negative thoughts rush in and are very intense and then my anxiety starts. Does anyone have any techniques for negative thoughts?

[alexandras11]

Yea it's very hard.

[bhamlaxy]

I would highly recommend this book- http://www.tao3.com/

It is cheap (under $15), it is a very quick read (1-2 hours), it shipped to me in like 3 days and it's sole focus is on countering negative thoughts. It's written by someone who has been through extreme anxiety/depression and uses this great writing exercise.

To put it simply, the exercise is called the "TEA form", which stands for Thought-Error-Analysis. If you google it you may be able to find some more info, but I don't think you will get the full impact unless you grab the book.

You just draw two vertical lines on a piece of paper (creating 3 columns)

The first column is the "Thought". Basically the negative (and irrational) thought.
The second column is the "error". The book has a list of about a dozen different types of errors. Many of them are things like exaggeration, thinking in black and white, globalizing, etc.
The third column is a more reasonable thought that replaces the irrational thought.

An example.
First column- I had this weird pain in my stomach. I must be dying of cancer.
Second column- Jumping to conclusions, Extreme thinking
Third column- There are a million reasons why I'd have a weird pain in my stomach, and it is certainly not cancer.

or

First column- I am going to have a huge panic attack and end up in the hospital
Second column- Jumping to conclusions, blowing things out of proportion, extreme thinking
Third column- Although it's very unpleasant, a panic attack isn't going to hurt me. I've been through them before and things go back to normal. I am totally safe, and there is nothing to fear but fear itself.

The idea is that you do this writing exercise every day, with whatever negative thoughts came up that day or often come up. You have to WRITE it, not just think about it. This really ingrains it in your head and makes it second nature. With 15-20 minutes a day on this, soon you shouldn't have those rushes of negative thoughts, because your brain already has perfectly reasonable memorized answers to them.

[jessy]

There is a book called , " Mind over Matter"
Very much along the same lines as the above book :-)

[Mike36]

Try a book called "mind over mood" it's based on CBT and teaches a really good format for writing down and challenging negative thoughts. It's by greenberger and Padesky.

[larmer]

my counsellor always said to me , if the negatives thoughts come into your head let them just say there only thoughts they cant harm you. it works.

[Dale King]

If you havent already, check out meditation.

It may sound all "enchanted spirit" and "hippy" but the more you do it, the better you become at controlling your thoughts. it taught me to take negative thoughts and just push them to one side and i tell you what, the effects are remarkable.

check out a website called meditainment, you have to pay for the full thing but i think they still have a free one which is a great starter

let me know how you go

[Lexie1425]

Thanks everyone for the ideas! These are great and much appreciated!

[gem]

Your thoughts are story telling NOT reality!