If you have particular thoughts which you feel limit your life satisfaction or sabotage your personal goals then maybe you have problematic automatic thoughts. This article explores what these are, their origin and proves a process for you to identify your own, and take control of your thoughts.

How to take control of your thoughts

As humans, whilst we are capable of holding within our mind  a huge number of ideas, thoughts memories etc, it is our attention resources which are much more limited. Compounding this further is  an evolutionary preference for making fast decisions. Is that a tiger approaching us in the distance or one of our friends?  Not a problem most of us face on a regular basis,  but one we have been designed to deal with. Whilst we possess a much more capable and complex brain than other species, we often take shortcuts to make a decision and these impact the quality of our decisions. In a previous article I explored cognitive biases.  In this article  I will expand on automatic thoughts and the associated beliefs they are based on.  Just a qualifier that not all automatic thoughts are problematic. It is the ones that cause us distress or limit our possibilities which will benefit from this analysis.

What Are Problematic Automatic Thoughts

As a therapist, I  often see the extreme end of problematic automatic thoughts. This might be someone responding to the outside world  in a way that doesn’t reflect their reality. They might have underlying beliefs (I’ll explain this a both more later) that they are not worthy / lovable / are enough. Based on these beliefs they hold automatic thoughts that they should avoid people, not trust them, not attempt things etc. Often this doesn’t reflect their outside reality  which says that they are capable people and have friends that value them> Often in their adult life they have no evidence to support this belief. As a therapist I  work with them to understand the basis for this beliefs, often formed in early childhood.  I help them to be willing to challenge,  in a safe way, their beliefs, and build new thoughts that reflect their current reality. Whilst for most people these automatic thoughts do not cause them enough distress to need to seek professional help.  They still  may impact your overall life satisfaction,  or they may be limiting you achieving the goals you are sett for yourself.  This might be enough reason to go through the process I outlined below.

Understanding your problematic automatic thoughts and their origins

This is a three step process.

1 -Identify the automatic thought

2 -Identify the rule of assumption behind it,

3- Find the core belief .

This example is one a client bought to therapy recently.  The background to this client is that she is  very successful and competent in her profession, but found it difficult to seek advice and guidance from others in areas in which she was not knowledgeable.  She came to therapy because this was  stopping her from achieving a personal goal. She wanted to write a book and this required her to find and work with experts in that field.

1 – Identify the automatic thought

The automatic thought she uncovered  is “I need to be wary of others as they will probably just take advantage of me and rip me off “.  This became particularly strong when she got to the point of contacting a book editor or publishing expert.  This thought stopped her from making the call. It was a rational thought but there was no evidence to support it.

2 – Identify the rule or assumption behind it

The rule or assumption is generally more difficult to find than the automatic thought. It is necessary as it provide a seemingly rational foundation for the thought. For this client as we explored further we found that her thought was based on the assumption that “People do things only to benefit themselves “.

3- Find the Core Belief

The core belief is sometimes held very deep in our psyche. This is because it is loaded with significant emotional meaning and was often formed based on significant distress. In this case when  we looked at the client’s  early life  we found a theme of not feeling valued as herself. Her experience of childhood was not being loved for herself and only experiencing  love  when she did things for her parents or others. Her core belief was  “I’m not worth being looked after”.

So in summary for this client:

AUTOMATIC THOUGHT I need to be wary of others as they will probably just take advantage of me and rip me off

RULES / ASSUMPTION People do things only to benefit themselves

CORE BELIEF I’m not worth being looked after

Once you have identified these three pieces of information and the links between them, then you can start looking at the evidence that supports them. You can also start thinking and behaving in a way that challenges them. This then builds evidence and the automatic thoughts start to lose their influence.

Caution

If you find that when you start approaching the core belief you experience significant emotional distress then I suggest stopping and seeking the services of a qualified and experienced therapist.

 In finishing…

Resilience and cognitive flexibility are key abilities which can increase your life satisfaction and protect again mental health issues. Noticing your automatic thoughts allows you to understand and explore them. If you find that they are limiting your happiness or stopping you from achieving your goals then you might find the process  above is useful. In general, the more we practice these high order cognitive skills the easier they become to use and the better our lives become.

If you know of anyone struggling with problematic automatic thoughts, consider showing your support by sharing this article.