This article was first published on Re:mind Psychology Centre website. Re:mind Psychology Centre was formerly known as ThinkInt. 

Photo by drobotdean from Freepik

We have inner dialogue with ourselves all the time. While reading this article, your inner voice is probably saying “how long is this article”? That is “self-talk”.

What is negative self-talk? Negative self-talk happens when we talk to ourselves negatively. We may say mean things to ourselves that we would not say to our friends such as “Why are you so stupid? Nobody would like me… I am worthless, untalented and useless.”

Many of us do not pay attention to our negative self-talk because they are automatic thoughts. They are as natural as we yawn.

However, many scientific researches have reported that these negative automatic thoughts (NATs) have adverse impact on our overall mental wellbeing. NATs are more prominent in individuals who are experiencing stress, chronic worries, depression, anxiety, eating disorder and obsessive compulsive disorder

In Malaysia, there has been an increasing rise of mental health issues and suicide cases in the pandemic It is becoming more important for us to learn new ways to manage our mental wellbeing.

What are Automatic Negative Thoughts?

In 1976, Dr Aaron T. Beck, a widely recognized psychiatrist and one of the pioneers of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), found that how we look at things influences how we feel and act toward an actual event. When our thoughts are distorted, our emotional and behavioral responses to the actual event tend to be unhealthy, self-defeating and distorted.

Here is the list of common NATs and examples that can help you to identify and manage your own negative thinking patterns. While identifying, jot them down, re-appraise and come up with an alternative thought to challenge these negative beliefs.

Individuals with all or nothing thinking tend to perceive things with black and white approach. There are no shades of grey.

An example: Individuals who have eating disorders may find it difficult to reconcile their food intake and weight. They may go to the extreme thinking eating sugar is bad even though it is a natural part of a normal diet. When people put themselves into absolute expectations, they may get easily disappointed because their expectations do not conform to reality.

Another example: “Trust me, the only way to prevent Covid infection is to get Brand A vaccination. All the other brands are ineffective.”

When someone makes a broad statement out of some specific cases, it is known as overgeneralization.

An example: “It is all the Asians’ fault that causes the spread of COVID-19 and me losing my job!”

When COVID-19 was declared a novel pandemic on 30 January 2020, it became a catalyst of risk overgeneralization such as anti-Asian hate crimes. Because of the disease’s unfamiliarity, the public perceive the risk more often with their current feelings – filled with fear and hatred that resulted in risk adverse behaviors such as racial stereotyping and xenophobia.

You only focus on the negative aspects of an event and filter out all the positive ones.

An example: “There’s still 20k cases today. Why can’t everyone just stay at home??”

During the pandemic, the public focuses mainly on the number of reported daily cases than the daily recovery and vaccinated case.

You diminish the positive experiences or turn positive feedback into negative ones. This happens a lot to individuals with low self-esteem.

For example, when you get selected as the employee of the month, your boss and colleagues congratulate you. Instead of saying thank you, you would brush off saying “It’s nothing. Anyone can do that. I am just lucky”.

Magnification is also known as catastrophizing. It is an act of ruminating about irrational, worst-case outcomes and blowing them out of proportions or shrinking them.

For example, an insecure boyfriend may think his girlfriend is breaking up with him when she replies to his text message 10 minutes later.

On the other hand, the girlfriend does not see her boyfriend’s dependent behavior as an issue to their relationship. This is known as minimization.

Another example of catastrophizing is when the public refuse to receive vaccine after learning the reported COVID-19 cases of vaccinated individuals.

YTL Construction Offers Free Counselling Sessions

Need someone to talk to about what you’re going through? Have you been feeling out of sync lately? Or have concerns that you need to address? YTL Construction cares about your mental health and offers counselling sessions for free.

We engage Re:mind Psychology Centre (formerly known as ThinkInt) and their team of certified counsellors to conduct counselling sessions. All sessions are fully anonymous, and bookings can be made directly with the counsellors.