Breaking Free from Anxiety: Identifying and Overcoming Common Thought Traps

Anxiety is a common occurrence that many people deal with throughout their lifetime. It can be just as common of an emotion as happiness, sadness, and anger. In fact, anxiety is one of the many new emotions that was featured in one of the latest Disney movies, Inside Out 2.

Inside Out 2 showcases how a new teen, Riley, works to deal with and overcome her anxious thoughts and feelings towards stressful and new situations as she is growing up. Even though anxiety is a common emotion, it’s not something that should take control. When this happens, it means there’s a larger issue at hand.

It’s time to break free from your anxiety. This is how to identify and overcome common thought traps.

What Are Thought Traps?

Thought traps are unwanted and often irrational negative thought patterns. These thinking patterns can lead to more anxiety, depression, stress, low self-esteem, panic, helplessness, and a lack of trust in oneself. These are some of the most common thought traps.

• All-or-Nothing Thinking: The all-or-nothing thought trap means thinking in extremes. For example, if you don’t believe that you’re a success, you may believe that you’re a failure instead. All-or-nothing thinking means that everything is black and white, there is no grey area.
• Catastrophizing: Fixating on the worst-case scenarios, even when they may be highly unlikely, is catastrophizing.
• Discounting the Positive: This thought pattern involves dismissing or brushing off any positive occurrences as coincidence instead of accepting the reality of the situation.
• Emotional Reasoning: Emotional reasoning is letting your own emotions take control. Instead of believing what is actually true, you’ll let your emotions guide you.
• Filtering: Filtering involves only focusing on the bad parts of a situation instead of realizing the good areas.
• Focusing On the “Should:” Instead of focusing on what you want or need, “should” statements like “I should’ve done this” will be driven by guilt.
• Jumping to Conclusions: Decisions that are made without considering all of the different facts or scenarios is jumping to conclusions.
• Overgeneralizing: Overgeneralizing involves using one piece of a situation to come to a conclusion instead of considering all of the different parts.
• Personalizations: Personalizations involve constantly blaming yourself for the things that go wrong in your life, even if they’re completely out of your control.

How to Overcome Common Thought Traps

Thought traps may be common, but that doesn’t mean that you constantly have to repeat the cycle. Here are some ways to overcome these common thought traps.

Action Over Anxiety

Instead of sitting with the anxious thoughts and feelings that you’re experiencing, try to find evidence to prove those anxious thoughts wrong. For example, if you’re worried that you upset a family member or friend, reach out to them to see if you’re on the same page.

Facts Over Feeling

While your feelings are valid, make sure you’re taking the time to prioritize facts over how you’re feeling.

Practice Gratitude

A lot of anxiety comes from worrying about past or future events. Practicing gratitude can help you bring your body and mind back to the present moment in time so you can feel more at ease.

Reframe Your Thinking Patterns

After you can identify those negative thought patterns, you can work to change them. Next time you notice yourself getting caught up in negative thought patterns, you can work to reframe it into something more positive and realistic.

Seek Additional Support

If you’re struggling with thought patterns, it’s important to know that you’re not alone. Even though they’re common, if they’re starting to impact your daily life and routine, it’s important to reach out for additional support. While your ways of thinking won’t be sunshine and rainbows all the time, it can be beneficial to learn tips and tricks to overcome these negative thought patterns the next time they occur. Working with a licensed and trained mental health professional can assist with this. Reach out today to set up an initial consultation for anxiety counseling.