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Managing Anxious Thoughts

Spending significant time in thought and in your mind is a safety mechanism of the brain to assess risks and threats. The brain prefers shortcuts, and when you start focusing on a specific set of thoughts, it believes it is being effective and generates even more. When this pattern takes hold, it leads to thought biases, making you feel trapped in a cycle of overthinking.


There are lots of different types of thought biases that become accompanied by a process of conformation bias. These thinking patterns include: All-or-Nothing thinking, personalisation, negative mental filtering, catastrophising, overgeneralising, emotional reasoning, shoulds and musts, mind reading, judgments, compare and despair and more. These thinking habits can become unhelpful and limiting, but the more you engage with these thoughts, the more you get.


So, how can you address them and implement changes? The primary self-help method involves becoming aware of the thoughts and altering your interaction with them. Instead, challenge these thoughts.

Some of the the options are:

  • Consider an alternative thought. Instead of "I'm such a bad friend!" - reflect on reality and create a different perspective: "In fact, Toby has been my friend since school, and we enjoyed a great time together last week. This friendship endures because we are kind and patient with one another."

  • Identify what you're doing, particularly when it comes to catastrophising. It might sound like, "Oh, I'm catastrophising again, imagining the worst-case scenario and accepting it as true. What if, instead, something less dramatic occurs?" (be specific with the less dramatic thought if you can).

  • Another helpful approach is to add a phrase in that distances you from the idea / thought your brain has come up with. For example: "Something bad is going to happen!" instead, "I'm having thoughts that something bad is going to happen."


It's crucial not to believe every thought you have! Thoughts and events occur, and while we can't prevent them, we can alter how we engage with them and the significance we assign to them.


If thoughts are getting too much to handle and impacting your life, a good alternative is getting some help through counselling. CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) can be useful, but all counsellors, regardless of their aproach, can offer support.


At Alison Westmacott Counselling, I have experience of working with individuals who are finding themselves overwhelmed by anxious thoughts. You do not have to struggle alone - just having the space to talk about how thoughts are dominating or impacting your life, is a release in itself. Then the work around changing your interaction with those thoughts can take shape. Please get in touch if you need more support.





 
 
 

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