What are Negative Automatic Thoughts (NAT’s) and how do they affect our mental and emotional well-being?

 

Negative Automatic Thoughts or NAT’s for short, represent the kind of thoughts that automatically come into our head when we are either depressed, in some sort of negative state of mind, or in some sort of anxiety or stressed state. They are thoughts that are not necessarily rational,  mostly don’t represent reality, don’t help our emotional state, or our state of mind. In fact, they greatly hinder our well-being and are toxic.

NAT’s are known to affect our mood and state of mind, render us feeling hopeless, helpless, lost, interpret situations wrongly and can make us feel very bad about ourselves. They can “make us feel” we have failed, that we are unworthy people or that it’s all hopeless. The list is never ending. NAT’s “make us feel” everything that is negative about a situation or ourselves. Unfortunately, they DO “Make us feel.” CBT teaches you how to stop them “Making you feel bad”. CBT helps you take control of these NAT’s, so that you control them and they no longer control you)

By their very nature NAT’s will have impact on your emotional state and for that reason they “make us feel”. If you have negative thoughts flooding into your head, you will also have negative feelings because thoughts affect feelings, just as feelings affect thoughts. This is then followed by your behavior becoming negative. Three negative states all working together unhealthily, and for this reason it is important to deal with them in an effective and lasting way.

There will be times when NAT’s impact more seriously, and times when the impact is less.  An extreme NAT could be “I don’t deserve to live” and the person thinking that thought might actually believe it, even though it is absolutely irrational and wrong. A far less dramatic example is: “I feel depressed, it will never get better” That person is just as likely to believe that thought even though it will not be accurate.  Both will believe their destructive and negative thoughts even though they are simply irrational.

NAT’s are NAT’s and   actually they rarely represent rational reality, but for some strange reason we will believe them. This is possibly because in a negative state of mind when we feel low, we will believe what they tell us without rationally trying to find out if they are right or wrong. A negative trigger goes off and this can bring about even more negative thoughts and feelings that continue to reinforce our current ones and so the cycle will continue.

NAT’s represent thoughts that are NOT in our control, not conscious, not thought out, not rational and mostly they are simply reactive and conditioned negative thoughts. For this reason I focus so heavily on teaching conscious awareness techniques so that you can learn how to consciously spot NAT’s as they happen and stop them as they happen. Having the ability to recognize and deal with them in the here and now can save a lot of misery once you begin to control them, and don’t allow them to control you.

Some typical examples of NAT’s are the following:

  • I’m ugly (Who says so?)
  • I am a failure (Who says so?)
  • No one likes me (No one?)
  • I will always feel this depressed (Do you know that for a fact?)
  • I feel hopeless (if you continue to believe your NAT’s  you might feel that way)
  • My life is never going to get any better (Do you know this for a fact?)
  • I can’t do anything to stop how I feel (Yes you certainly can)
  • You can’t cure depression (Yes you can)
  • I will never find love (How do you know that for fact?)

We have hundreds of NAT’s just waiting to affect us in negative ways, and the above are just a few. We always need to question, challenge and test them.

For example, let’s say you feel depressed one day and your PERCEPTION of the world is that it is a negative place. You lost your job, you are worried you won’t get another, you worry you won’t be able to pay your rent and you worry what people will think. You dive into a swamp of negative automatic thinking and see your psychological and emotional state sinking fast. You can’t see anything positive about anything and today it all looks quite hopeless. Your mind goes into a whole movie of negativity and soon you feel even worse. The situation gets out of control and so does your thinking.

Together with all this, you become very anxious. You have anxious negative thoughts rushing into your head and your body also starts reacting to them. You have a sudden rush of anxious feelings,  elevated heart rate, blood pressure rises, you start to sweat all over and you become very light headed just thinking about it all. At this point it all feels out of control, especially your thinking.

In the above situation some NAT’s might be:

  • I will never get another job    (How do you know this?)
  • I’m a failure     (NO, you are not)
  • I can’t cope  (Yes you can, you just need to learn how to)
  • No one will want me     (How do you know that for sure?)
  • I will lose my apartment and have to live on the street
  • The situation is hopeless     (No, it is not, it only seems that way)

At this moment in time you are filled with these kinds of negative thoughts and feelings, everything looks quite hopeless to you.  Your mood will suffer as well as your rational thinking. If you don’t have either, you won’t be in a good mental state to look for a job. Secondly, you can have control over your thoughts and emotions once you decide to; you can take control of your mind and not allow it to control you. This will enable you to help yourself which will be a very empowering experience. It’s a matter of organizing your head and your day which are the first steps in taking back control.

You might not be able to control how long it takes to find a new job, but you do want to put yourself in the right mental state to job search in an effective way.  This means you need to be in a position where you can question, challenge and test your NAT’s and not blindly react or accept them. Only then will you see how irrational they are and be able to change them.

Looking after your mental well-being has equal priority to finding a job. I know this doesn’t pay the bills, but if you are depressed and filled with NAT’s you will find it difficult to look for work or give a positive impression of yourself. If your energy can be channeled wisely on keeping mentally and emotionally healthy, you will reap the benefits a thousand fold.

 Hopefully you can do this while looking for a job because to do nothing and remain in a paralyzed negative state is not where you want to be.  You want to be in a positive state of mind where you can productively look for a job, this is the goal here. You may or may not need a therapist to help you, and hopefully you know what you need to do, if not, get someone who does know to help you.

What I have just written probably wouldn’t be a direction you would think of going in if you lost your job or if anything else negative happened to you. You possibly wouldn’t think of focusing on your mental and emotional health at this time. You would be more likely to struggle with yourself and if your NAT’s are in control, you will use up a huge amount of negative energy and so you want to ask yourself how best to use the limited energy you do have. (Getting rid of the NAT’s) If you allow them to NAT’s will try to render you helpless and hopeless because this is what they do.

Ensuring your mind is healthy and keeping it healthy is central. You will be far more likely to succeed in your job search if you have a healthy and positive state of mind you are in control of. You won’t with a negative state of mind where NAT’s are controlling you. The same rules apply to most negative situations you might find yourself in. Before dealing with the situation, it is vital to deal with your own state of mind to ensure it is a healthy one.  It doesn’t matter whether you lost your job, ended a relationship, had a bad interview, have financial problems or family problems, the rules of addressing the problem and NAT’s will be very similar. Getting back into a reasoned state of mind and getting rid of your NAT’s is the only way forward and the only way to regain control over your life mentally, physically and emotionally. We can’t always control the external, but can control the above  internal three states.

NAT’s are unhealthy and breed ever more negative thoughts in a continuous spiral.  For this precise reason you need to know how deal with them effectively. You need to ensure you recognize they are irrational, recognize the state they are sending you in, and have the tools to deal with them in a rational way.

As I say, it doesn’t matter WHAT the particular problem is, there is a sequence you can follow in order to successfully overcome NAT’s. It is the following:

  1. Ensure you are consciously aware enough to recognize the negative thoughts in your head are NAT’s
  2. Recognize  your NAT’s are irrational
  3. Recognize your NAT’s are likely to be conditioned thoughts
  4. Don’t accept or believe them
  5. Question, test and challenge them
  6. Find alternative and more effective ways of thinking about the negative situation you are in. Think healthily and rationally about what you can do turn your thinking and situation around. Remember, you want to control your NAT’s. You don’t want them controlling you.

You will already know that when you are in a depressed, anxious or distressed state, rationality can go out the window. Your memory becomes affected as does your ability to concentrate for any length of time and NAT’s can become rampant.  Learning to become consciously aware can directly help you with this. It will help you deal with your NAT’s in an effective way and help to restore your memory and your power of concentration while it’s about it, so please use it. It’s largely a matter of training and disciplining the mind and controlling the NAT’s.