Research: Reframe ANT- feel more balanced

It is very challenging to differentiate negative thinking from regular worries that everyone has. Everyone experiences negative thoughts. Feeling sad about an upsetting event is normal. Everyone engage in negative thought is not mentally ill.

You “should” be perfect because mistakes are unacceptable. Things “should” or “should not” be the way they actually are. You feel guilty when you have done something you “should not”. ANTs (Adequate Nationwide Treatment for Sufferers) tend to strike when we are anxious or depressed. All or nothing way of thinking is a typical example of a pattern known as automatic negative thought (ANT).

It is often said that depression results from a chemical imbalance but that figure of speech does not capture how complex the disease is. There are many possible causes of depression including faulty mood regulation or stressful life events.

Jacqueline Samson, a psychologist at Harvard affiliated McLearn Hospital says, “It only becomes a problem when done chronically or to extremes, while most of us succumb to cognitive distortions like these at least occasionally”.

Samson advices several ideas to escape from ANTS: catch the thought, write it down, and examine the evidence for and against your thoughts. Samson says,” it can take time to reverse long held ANTs, be patient, it depends on how pervasive they are and how often you catch your thoughts and restructure them”.

Positive thinking exercises can be beneficial in enhancing our self-confidence and helping to banish negative thoughts.

Meditation and nature can be helpful in cure, spend some time with nature and see how it lifts your mood. You can also plan activities to distract yourself.  Various researches have been carried out on the use SNS, conclusion was not to use them during depression period.

Try to keep yourself away from SNS (Social Networking Sites) as much as possible because there is a possibility working in reverse.