This document discusses automatic negative thoughts that can occur when a person is stressed. It identifies several common thinking errors like all-or-nothing thinking, tunnel vision, over-generalizing, jumping to conclusions, mind reading, and fortune telling. It encourages the reader to examine their thoughts when feeling stressed in order to identify these types of distortions. The document also provides examples of each thinking error to help the reader recognize them in their own thinking. It suggests that changing automatic negative thoughts can help improve mood, energy levels, and ability to handle stressors.

1. Stress Diary Journal Guides Guide 7: Automatic Thoughts
Guide 7: Automatic
Thoughts
Stress Diary Journal Typical thinking errors
Your Guide  All or nothing thinking
 Tunnel vision
Identifying Automatic N egative Thoughts?  Over-Generalising
These are Negative thoughts, thoughts at first, but it gets vulnerable to error. When we  Jumping to
which might make you behave in easier with practice. It helps if are stressed or feeling low, our conclusions
a way that is not helpful to your you write them down in a thoughts are particularly prone
well being have certain thought diary over a period of to distortions or errors.  Mind Reading
features: time and you could then revisit These thinking errors are
them. common – everyone has them  Fortune telling
 They are usually to some degree – but they do
automatic thoughts that seem Typical Thinking Errors make us feel worse. But - by  Catastrophising
to come out of nowhere A basic factor in how we changing or Automatic
 Often they can flash respond to a situation is the Thoughts, we can change our  Emotional Reasoning
through your mind without you way in which we interpret the feelings and our energy levels,
being aware of them situation. Our five senses are and improve how we handle the  Should statements
 They seem reasonable at capable of taking in much more setbacks and stresses in daily
information that our brains are life. Normally – we each have  Labelling & Mislabelling
the time, and you accept them
without question able to compute, so we need to our ‘favourite’ thinking errors.
simplify the information Review these and identify  Personalisation and
They are the thoughts that, if
they were true, would make streaming in through our eyes yours. Blame
most people feel quite anxious and ears before we can use it.
We cut corners and take All or Nothing thinking – If  Discounting the
or unhappy
shortcuts in our thinking to your performance falls short of Positive
Next time you feel particularly handle the sensory load better. perfect, you see yourself as a
stressed, take time to examine Doing this means that we are total failure [‘I didn’t get top
what is going through your not getting a direct readout on marks in one test – I’m
mind. It may be quite hard to the world, so our thoughts and useless’]. This type of thinking
identify your automatic beliefs about the world are forms the basis of
perfectionism and frequently something has happened in the you know what other people are
goes hand in hand with the past, it always will [‘My thinking, or that they are
tendency to see things in partners always leave me, the reacting negatively to you,
black and white [‘I’m people I meet are all unfaithful’] without checking your hunches ‘Next time you
completely right, he’s e.g. ‘My friend didn’t say hello – are stressed,
completely wrong’] Jumping to conclusions – You she is mad at me’.
make a negative interpretation
take time to
Tunnel Vision – Seeing only the even though there are no Fortune telling – You predict examine what is
negative [or the positive] definite facts that convincingly that things will turn out badly. going through
aspects of a situation. support your conclusion. Before a very important test, your mind!
Examples are: you may tell yourself, ‘I am
Over-generalisation going to fail, I know it’ If you are
Expecting that, because Mind Reading – You assume depressed, you may tell
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2. Page 2 Stress Diary Journal
yourself, ‘I’ll never get better’. take your emotions as evidence
for the truth – ‘I feel guilty,
Catastrophising – You therefore I must have done
exaggerate your own problems, something bad’ or ‘I feel
imperfections, etc and anxious, so something bad must
automatically imagine the be about to happen’.
worse case scenario: ‘I made a
mistake. Now I am going to fail, Should Statements – You try
I won’t get into University and to convince yourself with
loose all chance of getting a ‘shoulds and shouldn’ts’ as if
good job. I will never be able to you had to be whipped and
afford to buy a car and house punished before you could be
and will grow old a lonely expected to do anything. ‘Musts’
person…’ and ‘Oughts’ are also offenders
e.g. ‘I should do this’ or ‘I must
Emotional reasoning – You do that’. The emotional
consequence is guilt. When you direct ‘should’ statements towards
“ It is not others, you feel anger, frustrations and resentment e.g. ‘He
shouldn’t be so self-centered and thoughtless’ or ‘She ought to be
the event prompt’.
that causes Labelling and Mislabelling – Instead of describing your effort, you
us stress, it attach a negative label to yourself: ‘I’m a failure’ instead of ‘I made
a mistake’ When other people’s behaviour rubs you the wrong way,
is our view you attach a negative label: ‘She’s lazy’ instead of ‘She’s too busy’.
of the
Personalisation and Blame – Occurs when you hold yourself
event” personally responsible for an event that is not entirely under your
control and can lead to guilt, shame and feelings of inadequacy. The
opposite is blaming other people or circumstances for your
problems without considering ways that you might be
contributing to the problem.
Discounting the Positive – You shrink your strengths, resources
and good points and reject positive experiences by insisting they
don’t count. For example, If you do a good job, you tell yourself that
it wasn’t good enough, or that anyone could have done as well…
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3. Page 3
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