Most people experience negative thoughts from time to time. These pass just as quickly as they come. However, when negative thoughts become persistent or stuck, people can start to feel anxious, pessimistic, unhappy, overthink, and feel overwhelmed.
How to Manage Negative Thoughts
Here are some helpful points to keep in mind.
1. Gain control over your thoughts
You can do this by managing the emotions they generate or by noticing and addressing their causes.
2. One way to gain control is to recognise when you think a negative thought
When you do, notice it, and notice how it impacts you without judgment. To do this, isolate the thought and observe it. Label it as a negative thought and decide on whether you wish to interact with it or not. Let it go if you can, and if it comes round again, repeat the process. This is a process of mindfulness.
3. Challenge your negative thought(s)
Do this by identifying your thought(s) and seeing if it/they fall into any of the following categories:
a. Jumping to conclusions: Assuming that something negative will happen without considering any other possibility.
b. All or nothing: Thinking in a very binary way—either it’s all amazing or all awful.
c. Catastrophic thinking: Assuming the worst possible outcome.
d. Overgeneralising: A tendency to apply what happened in one experience or situation to all as an absolute rule.
e. Personalising: Relying solely on your own emotional response to something and believing that anything and everything relates to you.
f. Should statements: Constant critical self-assessment based on an unrealistic belief about your ability to succeed, often leading to self-defeatist thoughts.
4. Replace negative thoughts
Follow a step-by-step process of:
• identifying the thought
• evaluating the accuracy of the thought
• and then replacing the inaccurate thought with a realistic, balanced, or helpful one
5. Use a thought diary
Thought diaries are helpful in identifying and changing recurrent negative thoughts.
6. Try and get an assessment
If negative thoughts are very persistent and leave you feeling low, exhausted or stuck, try and get an assessment from a mental health specialist since it might be that you are anxious or depressed.
7. Manage negative thought patterns
stem4’s free Clear Fear app helps manage some of the negative thought patterns connected with anxiety. Download it for free to help you manage anxiety and face your fear.
8. Signposts
- The NHS website on negative thinking has many tips
- There are many self-help guides including ‘Mind over Mood’ by Greenberg and Padesky; The Anxiety and Worry Workbook by Aaron T Beck
- Cognitive Behavioural Worksheets by L Shapiro
- Mindfulness books include Thinking Fast and Slow by Kahneman, Wherever You Go, There You Are by Jon Kabat-Zinn
- The NHS Every Mind Matters CBT online help also provides some helpful tips and support
Find out more about managing negative thoughts and building resilience in our Resilience section.
