You can come back to this behavior to discuss what happened and what made them upset later. Right now, they want your love and support. If something happened that bothered them, they let you know or it may take some time before they share. You go to your child and give them a hug, telling them you love them and everything is okay. What’s upsetting my child? Why are they feeling frustrated or angry? What can I do right now to help them soothe their emotions and resolve the problem? reactive parenting) and thinking you’re a bad parent, you consciously take a step back and evaluate the situation. Instead of yelling at your child to stop screaming (a.k.a. Your child is screaming at the top of their lungs and having a moment of emotional dysregulation. What I mean is: We can face a situation with honesty, but take on a positive, productive outlook and create a solution for those circumstances. However, I also believe that honesty is a huge part of a type of positive thinking method that is helpful and beneficial to our mental and emotional health. I’m not against positive affirmations at all! I believe they are a powerful tool that can be used to help us reprogram our minds and cut off the A.N.Ts for good. When we only focus on thinking positive thoughts or wishful thinking, this can also affect us negatively. But there is a toxic side to positive thinking. It’s simple to think that the opposite of A.N.Ts is positive thoughts or affirmations instead. Sometimes, our thoughts don’t come from us at all, but are words that someone has said to us, which continue to repeat in our minds. A lot of times, our thoughts can lie to us. When you are aware of those pesky A.N.Ts in your head that pop up on repeat, you can consciously change those thoughts and change your perspective on a situation. In a 2010 study, repetitive negative thinking was discovered to be linked to depression and anxiety in children and teenagers between the ages 10 to 18. Repetitive negative thinking, overtime, can even contribute to cognitive decline and increase risk of Alzheimer’s, according to a 2020 Prevent-AD Research Group study. If you have negative thoughts on repeat, they can negatively impact your mood, your self-esteem, and your overall perspective on life experiences. “I’m so stupid! I can’t believe I made that mistake, I could have totally avoided it.”ĭo any of these sound familiar to you? Do you tell yourself any of these thoughts, or variations of these thoughts, on a daily basis? It’s easy to be harsh on ourselves and mentally punish ourselves when we make a mistake or we feel like we’re not “good enough.” “I can’t do this - it’s too difficult for me. I don’t think I have it in me to do it now.” Why It’s Important to Be Aware of A.N.Ts in Your Mind You can even experience physical symptoms of A.N.Ts, including stomach aches or pains, headaches, dizziness, and sweating. Amen came to the realization that “ants” can stand for “ automatic negative thoughts.” Just like how the ant infestation caused a lot of frustration for him, the A.N.Ts infestation in our mind can rob us of our inner joy, peace, and happiness. The story behind how he coined the term A.N.Ts: He discovered a large ant infestation in his kitchen after a long day at work-thousands of ants were crawling all over his kitchen, from the countertops to the floor!Īs he was cleaning up the ant infestation, Dr. Daniel Amen, a psychiatrist and brain disorder specialist, in the 1990s. Aaron Beck, known as the “father of cognitive therapy.” The acronym, “A.N.Ts,” was created by Dr. ”Īutomatic negative thoughts are a concept introduced by Dr. Helping individuals to become aware of the presence and impact of negative automatic thoughts, and then to test their validity, is a central task of cognitive therapy.” These are thoughts that have been “ so well learned and habitually repeated that they occur without cognitive effort. Automatic thoughts affect a person’s mood and actions. The Story Behind A.N.Ts: What Are Automatic Negative Thoughts?Īccording to the APA Dictionary of Psychology, in general, automatic thoughts (also known as routinized thoughts ) are defined as “Thoughts that are instantaneous, habitual, and nonconscious.
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