Challenging negative thoughts

[baldymanphil]

Any advice on how to challenge negative thoughts would be most welcome please. I constantly have such thoughts in my head. How can you get rid of them? I am taking antidepressants so hopefully these might help?

[dno.9]

Hi
I’ve just joined this site. I’m suffering the same and was hoping chatting to others with similar feelings would help.
I’m really down in the dumps feeling sad and lonely at times as I have nobody to talk to.

[baldymanphil]

Hi dno.9. What type of thoughts do you get and how do you cope? Please let ne know and I'll do my best to help you if I can.

[battle-angel]

Hi all,

Have some tips on how to challenge negative thougthts..
There's something in the medical literature called

1) intrusive thoughts. To 'combat' intrusive thoughts, you really should not fight them, but learn to 'accept' them. One technique suggests to think/say aloud : ' I see you [thought], i hear you [thought], I acknowledge that you are a part of me, however you are [not me]'. Over time, this should help aid you. To just reject/deny runs the risk unfortunately of repetition of such negative thoughts.

2) finding people who are positive-minded. Most of the time, we all need someone to talk to, and that's where to start for all of us. These are people who you could try align yourself to. People who see that behind crisis, that there exists opportunity to improve, become better and contribute to others. Do you have friends who are doctors? Support workers? Volunteers? these people tend to be generally optimistic as they have a strong sense of purpose with their line of work and thus, connecting with members of your community in these fields of work could be useful to learn how to think positively

3) Music: learning to listen to music with positive, inspiring lyrics and melodies is one thing to also keep in mind.

4) Exercise. Exercise releases endorphins (happy hormones) and rebalances our thoughts to find more motivation and drive to pursue what we desire

5) Reading about recovery/comeback stories: Life is a long haul. We've got 2nd/3rd/4th/.....24th chances to make it back, and even better. Read about recoveries and mental health and realize statistics are just numbers and one can genuinely beat statistics to be on the better side of things.

If anyone wants to have a chat about anything 1on1 to let anything off their chest or just chat casually, feel free to reach out!

[albertinageller]

Don't fear the intrusive thoughts that you are getting they are just thoughts don't let them become anything more than that. And never change yourself because of a thought that will increase your anxiety.

[pippop592]

Hi there. I think for me this depends on how I'm doing at the time. If I'm generally OK and having some negative or self critical thoughts I can see them and see what's happening and let them go and tell myself something more supportive. If I'm not in such a great place it's very hard to do that and they build and build and attempts to solve the problem or make the thoughts go away only makes it worse. I cannot think my way out of a low day because the thinking is a big part of the problem.

So on a bad day I try to do adjust my expectations of what I'm going to be able to do, I try to do things that are kind or comforting for myself, eat nice food, sleep a bit, look out the window, whatever. Something with no pressure. And I try to do things regularly which build towards a more positive outlook which, for me, is yoga, exercise, getting enough sleep, having some time in the day which is not structured and where there's no pressure to do something a certain way or solve a problem - I like drawing for this at the moment. At other times I've written a gratitude diary, practised self compassion meditation, tried to notice my own achievements, however small etc.

I think different things obviously work for different people, but this is my approach at the moment. Hope you are OK.

[battle-angel]

Hi there. I think for me this depends on how I'm doing at the time. If I'm generally OK and having some negative or self critical thoughts I can see them and see what's happening and let them go and tell myself something more supportive. If I'm not in such a great place it's very hard to do that and they build and build and attempts to solve the problem or make the thoughts go away only makes it worse. I cannot think my way out of a low day because the thinking is a big part of the problem.

I think different things obviously work for different people, but this is my approach at the moment. Hope you are OK.

These are great points from pippop.. i hope this helps you!

[baldymanphil]

Fantastic answers to the question I raised so many thanks to all who replied.

[prycejosh1987]

Any advice on how to challenge negative thoughts would be most welcome please. I constantly have such thoughts in my head. How can you get rid of them? I am taking antidepressants so hopefully these might help?

I listen to music often. It keeps my mind busy and at bay and helps me repel negativity. Antidepressants are good, but that is just a coping method, you need to find something longer lasting and more effective against your depression. Combat the underlying issues, and rediscover yourself.

[isola701]

maybe negative thoughts are not always a bad thing. I have them and I guess they level you out, I have never been someone to have 100% positive OTT outlook on life (thats the sort of draining person I keep away from) maybe you/we need to just try and have at least one positive thought per day and not to get to het up on the negative ones?