what do you do to successfully counter act your negative thoughts?

[liveitup898]

its been almost 3 full months since i've finally completely weened off effexor xr ...... and it hasnt been easy, but i've managed so far.

anyway i realized that if could block out my negative thoughts that i would probably be cured of my anxiety/depression/panic by now!!!

basically, i always try to find the negative in every situation.......and i soak in the negative things i hear or see rather then the positive.

what do you guys do to counter these problems?

[jessed03]

You can begin to think less?

Train yourself to be an observant person. Thoughts are never current. They're a reaction to what just passed, rearranging opinions, or apprehension of the future. I really believe 99 out of every 100 play no importance to your life whatsoever. They just confuse, upset or scare you. Or in other cases, they are just something to do while life goes by. Every now and again you get a useful one. Why not minimize it to only the useful ones?

You can begin to quieten your mind by making absolutely no effort whatsoever to change it, alter it, or make it different. After all, you can't quieten thinking if you're always thinking about how to think. Watch it all go by like a river that just keeps on flowing. Your body has this funny realization - 'Wow, I work so much more efficiently when I'm not interfering, I'm happier, calmer, more energetic!!'
People do it in meditation and find it relaxes them incredibly. They watch it all go by, flowing as it always does, non-judgementally, until everything eventually just becomes calm. So many people say meditation has helped them overcome anxiety. They become so in-tune with life during their meditation, that they don't need to think. It would be irrelevant, and slow them down, and detach them from this great experience.
Why not turn your life into a meditation. A process of being very aware, very focused, and relaxed. It pretty much kicked my panic attacks, social anxiety and depression to the floor. You realize for most of your life, all you ever do is get in your own way haha!

Thought then becomes a tool, instead of your life. You can have creative spells, or ideas, give the odd bit of self encouragement. But you choose to do it. And you actually listen. Instead of having to scream over the murmering of constant thought processes, and negative thoughts.

I just finished writing a 15 page mini-book about this for a website, it's hard to sum it up in a few lines. My opinion of it anyway, many people find ways of working it. It just seems like a more peaceful way to live than saying "SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP" inside your head all the time. :)

[Lovey90]

I do not know if I am doing the right thing but what I am doing is letting all thoughts flow through my mind, both the negative ones and positive ones, sometimes I do it on purpose just to battle the anxiety. What I have learned is that thoughts are just thoughts, they can not harm us in any way. But when you are in the ''anxiety-mode'' then it is very hard to realise this, but I have been working so much with this so I am at a stage where I do not care, even though I'm still in the ''anxiety-mode'' where a negative thought can seem so real. A negative thought still ''shakes'' me but just some seconds after I can think of the same thought without caring. Anxiety and depression usually work together, you might think of a thought that makes you anxious and panic, and then you get depressed because of the anxiety and unreal thoughts. What you have to do now is realise that the thoughts that make you anxious and panic are unreal, they will never happen no matter what you do, there is nothing you can do to make them happen, face the anxiety but do it slowly! Right now about 90% of my thoughts are negative but it is just because I want to battle the anxiety. I have intrusive thoughts (thoughts that are unwanted) about jumping in front of a car or a train, so when I am close to a road sometimes I think of me jumping in front of cars, and I think of it on purpose, because I am so confident that these negative thoughts are unreal. I can easily get irritated now when I am working on this, because it seems so dumb to have to assure myself that I will not jump in front of a car but it works for me. This is called exposure therapy, but I recommend you do this together with a therapist because when I tried this on my own, just in the beginning of my panic-anxiety, then it scared the hell out of me. So you have to work very slowly and gradually build up your confidence. After a while you will be able to think of the negative thoughts and literally laugh at them, just give it some time and if it is too much to handle on your own then visit a therapist! Good luck!