Negative thoughts buzzing around your head? 20 questions that could help.
As the days draw in… and in… and in… it’s very easy to feel down and start feeling negative. That’s when NATS can fly in. No not those little flying insects that buzz around and can sting (they’re gnats!) but Negative Automatic Thoughts. They can also fly in and buzz around our heads!
One of the tools that my clients find very useful to get those irritating thoughts to buzz off are are these 20 questions designed to challenge negative thinking…
1. Is this a thought or a fact?
2. Am I jumping to conclusions?
3. Is my view of things the only possible one?
4. Do these negative thoughts help or hinder me?
5. What are the advantages and disadvantages of thinking this way?
6. Am I asking qusetions that have no answers?
7. Am I thinking in terms of all or nothing?
8. Do my thoughts include ultimatum words?
9. Am I telling myself I’m a bad person because of things that have happened recently?
10. Am I concentrating on my weaknesses and forgetting my strengths?
11. Am I blaming myself for something that isn’t my fault?
12. Am I taking things personally?
13. Am I expecting myself to be perfect?
14. Am I using double standards?
15. Am I only looking at the black side of things?
16. Am I overestimating the chance of disaster?
17. Am I exaggerating the importance of events?
18. Am I worrying about the way things should be rather than dealing with them as they are?
19. Am I assuming there’s nothing I can do to change my situation?
20. Am I looking in a crystal ball , predicting the future?
With thanks to Clinical Psychology Central Manchester and Manchester Children’s University Hospitals NHS Trust 2002