ANTs (automatic negative thoughts) are the thoughts that come into your head and ruin your day. They make you feel sad, mad, nervous or out of control. They sabotage your healthy eating plans, diminish your desire to exercise, destroy your self-esteem, and make you feel rotten.
9 “Species of ANTs”
- All or Nothing Thoughts: These are ANTs infest your brain when you think everything is all good or all bad, such as “I am the worst doctor that ever lived” or “I am the worst parent that ever lived.” We also call this black or white thinking.
- Always Thinking: These ANTs attack you when you think in words like always, never, every time, or everyone. This is when you take one event and overgeneralize it, such as “My wife never listens to me.”
- Focus on the Negative: This ANT attacks when you only see the negative aspects of situations, even when there are plenty of positives.
- Thinking with your Feelings: Feeling are not facts. This type of ANT strikes when you believe your feelings, without ever questioning them. Feelings can lie too.
- Guilt Beating: You know these ANTs are torturing you when you in think in words like “should, must, ought, or have to.” Guilt is not a helpful motivator. It is better to replace these words with “it is my goal to do this” or “I want to do that to stay healthy.”
- Labeling: These ANTs invade your mind whenever you call yourself or someone else names or use derogatory terms. For example, “I’m a loser” or “She’s lazy.” Whenever this ANT strikes you lump yourself or the other person with all the people you have ever met who were a loser or lazy and cannot deal with them effectively.
- Fortune-Telling: These ANTs are masterful at predicting the worst even when you don’t know it will happen. They make you feel anxious and afraid.
- Mind reading: These ANTs attack you when you think you know what someone else is thinking even though they have not told you, and you have not ask them. You cannot read anyone’s else’s mind.
- Blame: This ANT strikes whenever you blame someone else for the problems you have. This is a red ANT because it is very dangerous. Whenever you blame someone else for your problems, you become a victim and cannot do anything to change the situation.