They distort reality and spoil life. How to recognize and turn off automatic thoughts?

psychologist, gestalt therapist

“In the process of development a person develops certain images of himself, other people, the surrounding world and events in it. When the need to take any action arises, he relies on these ready-made attitudes, unconsciously. This helps to react quickly to changes and not to spend unnecessary resources on thinking. In psychology, such a phenomenon is called “automatic thoughts”. They are the basis not only for human behavior, but also for emotional and physiological reactions”.

What are automatic thoughts?

The term “automatic thoughts” belongs to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), founded by American psychologists Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis. The method helps people cope with life’s difficulties by identifying negative beliefs about themselves and the world around them.

According to the CPT theory, automatic thoughts are evaluative judgments, ideas about something, which, as a rule, have a negative character. Based on these beliefs, a person develops attitudes – his or her own rules and norms, as well as his or her own system of values.

This is done automatically, unconsciously, so in most cases a person does not even think about how much his thoughts correspond to reality. He very rarely evaluates their reliability. Why are beliefs not always true?

The consciousness of a person in the course of his life is influenced by various factors, including negative ones: stresses, problems, deprivations, traumas. Under their influence, ways of thinking and perception are often transformed, and various cognitive distortions or thinking errors arise. They play a significant role in the formation of personality.

Cognitive distortions are illogical inferences, incorrect conclusions. Here are examples of the most common erroneous judgments.

1. Black and white thinking

A person perceives the environment exclusively in black or white colors, not allowing any shades. Either everything is good or everything is bad.

2. tunnel thinking

A person perceives reality by narrowing it down to one exciting object. Most of what is going on remains out of focus.

3. Confirmation bias

The person favors facts, opinions, and beliefs that are consistent with his or her own. At the same time, he reacts negatively or not at all to what contradicts his opinion.

4- Negative Perception Effect

A person pays more attention to bad news than to good news. Negative events are considered more credible.

5. Catastrophizing

A person inflates any event to the size of a tragedy – makes a big deal out of it. On the basis of an insignificant occasion makes global decisions in his life.

6. Tendency to generalize

A person gets used to speaking and thinking with generalizing constructions: “all”, “always”, “no one”, “never” and so on. Does not give himself the opportunity to consider private, individual cases.

On the basis of such automatic thoughts, sometimes distant from the real state of affairs, a person forms negative schemes of thinking. They affect his emotional state, perception of people and life situations, and then the choice of certain behavioral strategies.

The more cognitive distortions, the more negative attitudes and beliefs. The less often a person checks the validity of his automatic thoughts, the less comfortable his life becomes.

Features of automatic thoughts

A depressed person sees the world painted in dark colors and does not notice the positive things that are inevitably present, despite the existing problems. Anxious – focuses more on threatening situations and misses the positive and bright moments, which only confirms the “correctness” of his attitude to life.

As a result, a personality schema is formed – a stable way of organizing information around. On its basis a deep general belief of a person about himself, about others or about the world is formed. It often manifests itself in such phrases as “I am a loser!”, “I am a bad person!”, “All people lie to each other!”, “There is nothing good in life!”, “The world is a very dangerous place!” and the like.

Of course, this leads at least to discomfort, but it can also provoke more severe psychological conditions – depression or even personality disorder.

How to identify automatic thoughts?

On your own, it can be difficult to “catch” your underlying negative attitudes, as they are habitual and do not seem untrustworthy. It is best to practice this skill together with a psychotherapist. In the process of conversation, the therapist will ask clarifying questions and notice the nuances of the person’s thoughts that are not noticeable to him or her.

For self-help, one of the best ways is to keep a “Diary of thoughts”. To do this, just take a sheet of paper and divide it into several columns, where you should describe the situation that occurred, the emotions that arose and the thoughts that you had in the process.

Next, you can write down a few ideas that confirm the automatic thought. Add a few solutions that refute them. And afterwards, choose the most, in your opinion, rational idea that has confirmation in reality. Afterward, evaluate how valid your initial, automatic thought was.

Analyzing and correcting deep-seated attitudes

The main goal in correcting underlying attitudes is to evaluate their adequacy to reality. It is important to realize that an automatic thought is not absolutely true, nor is it absolutely false, and to develop a healthy skepticism toward any ideas that arise.

Of course, this process is most effectively accomplished with the help of a therapist and psychotherapy. The tendency to focus on some facts and overlook or avoid others, as well as to act in patterns and not try new attitudes and behaviors, are human defensive reactions that are frightening and sometimes painful to overcome alone.

The therapist will help his client move away from generalizing, devaluing, and catastrophizing. He or she will support the client to stay in the “here and now” so that he or she can describe himself or herself and what is happening as accurately as possible, based on reliable facts.

In addition, the therapist will offer the client an experimental way to test his beliefs and support the client in trying things he has avoided trying before. It is human nature to create a system of attitudes, beliefs and values for oneself when dealing with anxiety, thereby maintaining the illusion of a controlled and predictable reality.

The task of cognitive psychotherapy is to show the person that the world is unpredictable and undefined. It teaches to form new rules and attitudes instead of old rules and attitudes that no longer work, to rely on the surrounding reality, not on the pictures of oneself and the world formed under the influence of previous stresses.

In the process of work, a cognitive psychotherapist will teach a person to stop unwanted thoughts, replace them and the unpleasant experiences they cause with alternative and positive options. To do this, the therapist may use many different therapeutic techniques such as defocusing, reformulation, decatastrophizing, and others.

It is important to remember that your perception of an event is not right or wrong, it is a reflection of your experience and knowledge of yourself and the world, and is always subjective. Developing the skill to separate neutral facts from emotions, and thoughts from actions will allow you to reduce the intensity of “negative” feelings and make more balanced decisions in your life.