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Automatic
Negative Thoughts (ANTs)
Patterns of
Irrational Thinking from the book,
Healing Anxiety and
Depression by Dr. Daniel Amen
 In the book
Healing Anxiety and Depression, Dr. Amen identifies nine
types of irrational thinking. Because of the automatic nature
of these ingrained patterns, he calls them “ANTs” (Automatic
Negative Thoughts). Do ANTs infest your brain? Check the nine
types of irrational thoughts below and notice how frequently
they are spoiling your picnic.
1.
“Always Thinking”
“Always Thinking”
is a form of over generalizing. It is thinking in absolutes:
“always,” “never,” “no one,” “every time,” “everything,” “they
all”.
Examples: He’s
always late. No one cares about me. Men are________. She
never listens to me. They are
all alike.
2.
“Focusing on the Negative”
“Focusing on the
Negative” occurs when one only attends to the negative elements
of a situation and ignores the positive. Example: You go to a
great new restaurant. The food and ambiance were wonderful but
your waiter wasn’t as friendly as you like. If you were
focusing on the negative, you would narrow your focus to what
you didn’t like about the waiter. You might completely minimize
or discount the majority of the experience, which was
wonderful.
3.
“Fortune Telling”
According to Dr. Amen “these ANTs
occur when you predict that bad or negative things
will happen.” This hurts your peace of mind and can ultimately be
part of a negative self-
fulfilling prophecy. You might think of
this type of person as the bad-fortune teller.
4.
“Mind Reading”
This occurs when you believe that you know what other people are
thinking about you. Often
people assume the worst. They
imagine that others think a litany of terrible things about them
without any proof or verification of their negative
assumptions. This usually has more to do
with them projection
on to another person their own negative thoughts about
themselves.
5.
“Thinking with Your Feelings”
Example: “I feel that he doesn’t
like me.” Feeling can be very strong and deeply rooted in
past
experiences. If someone you just met looks like a person that
didn’t like you from your
school days, then you may think with
your feelings and conclude that this new person does not
like
you. Such attributions can happen with no evidence what so
ever. It is wise to consider
such cases.
6.
“Guilt Beatings”
Guilt induced behaviors are not
typically actions we would want to choose. When you use
words
like “should,” “ought,” “must,” and “have to” you are starting
to beat yourself with guilt.
Often this type of thinking will
create resentment or backfire in us behaving passively
aggressive or rebelliously.
7.
“Labeling”
Attaching a negative label to
yourself or someone else prevents you from accurately and
completely seeing reality. As soon as you label someone a jerk
or label yourself as stupid, the
whole of the person is reduced
to the narrow confines of the label. You or the other person
becomes identified with the label.
8.
“Personalization”
Personalization
occurs when small and probably unrelated events are taken
personally. For example, your coworker doesn’t speak to you one
morning and you assume that they must be mad at you. But in
this case their behavior was the result of a fight with their
spouse that distracted them.
9.
“Blame”
By blaming other people or
circumstances one fails to take responsibility for their own
choices and actions. This causes people to get stuck in the
victim role and feel powerless.
Buy Healing Anxiety and Depression now at Amazon.com
Steve B. Reed, LPC, LMSW,
LMFT www.psychotherapy-center.com
972-997-9955
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