There are a number of ways that individuals will look at a situation that affect our thoughts and feelings. Some thoughts make us anxious due to ‘thinking errors’. Thinking errors are ‘faulty patterns’ of thinking that are self-defeating. They occur when the things you are thinking do not match up with reality. Those who have thinking errors often don't realise they are doing so.

Negative Glasses

Only seeing the negative in a situation and not seeing anything positive that happens or discounting it. Negative glasses might also mean you take things more personally or you see things as black and white e.g. people don’t like me, or I always say the wrong thing.

Snowballing

Because one thing has gone wrong, everything will go wrong. For example, “I might get told of at school, and then i’ll get detention and then i’ll miss the school trip and then i’ll loose my friends and then… and then…”

Predicting the Future

Predicting what will happen for example “I know i’ll get really anxious when I go out and I know i’ll have a panic attack and I know it’ll be awful”

Misinterpreting the Effects of Adrenaline

Thinking that the physical symptoms of anreneline/anxiety mean something else. For example thinking that its related to a preexisting health condition, your having a heart attack or, you’re about to faint or going crazy.

Negative Mind Reading

Guessing what you can tell what others are thinking, without any evidence for this, e.g. “that person thinks i’m stupid”, or “they are laughing at how red my face is”, “they are talking, and laughing at me”

Ruminating

Like when a cow chews grass, ruminating is when we keep ‘chewing’ over past events and mistakes we have made in our mind. When you ruminate, you over-think or obsess about situations or life events, such as school, friends or relationships.

(ClearView Counselling & Psychotherapy is a trading name of ANJ Consultancy Ltd)