As we have seen in the CBT Cycle, our thoughts can influence how we feel and how we respond to situations.
This is where starting to identify and learn about our Negative Automatic Thoughts, sometimes shortened to NATs, can help lay the foundation for getting more in control of our CBT cycle.
These are thoughts or interpretations that can pop into our minds automatically, often without us consciously choosing to think them. They can happen so quickly that we may not even notice them; we simply notice that we suddenly feel anxious, low, overwhelmed or upset.
Our minds produce thoughts all day long. Some are ordinary: “I need to buy milk.” Others can arrive very quickly in difficult situations: “I’ve messed this up.” “They think I’m stupid.” “Something bad is going to happen.” Sometimes these thoughts appear so automatically that we barely notice them.
Automatic thoughts
In CBT, these quick thoughts are often called automatic thoughts. When they are negative or distressing, you may also hear the term Negative Automatic Thoughts, or NATs. They can appear rapidly, without us deliberately choosing to think them, and can easily feel like facts.
Meet your mental parrot
One way of thinking about automatic thoughts is to imagine a mental parrot. A parrot can learn phrases and repeat them again and again without examining whether what it is saying is accurate, useful or relevant.
Your mental parrot might have favourite phrases such as: “You’re going to get this wrong.” “They don’t like you.” “You should have done better.” “Something bad is going to happen.” There is not literally a parrot in your head; it is simply a metaphor for the way automatic thoughts can appear quickly and repeatedly.
Automatic doesn’t mean true
Imagine you send a friend a message and they do not reply. Your mind quickly produces the thought: “I’ve upset them.” That is one possible explanation, but there could be many others.
“That’s the thought my mind produced.” rather than “That’s definitely what is happening.”
Why can these thoughts feel so convincing?
Automatic thoughts are often closely connected with our emotions. If you already feel anxious, a worrying thought may feel particularly believable. Once the emotion becomes stronger, the thought can feel even more true.
This does not mean that you are choosing to think negatively. Just as you cannot control which emotions come up, you cannot always control which thoughts pop into your head. What you can work on is how you respond to them.
Favourite repeated phrases
You may start to notice themes that appear repeatedly: “I’m not good enough.” “I’ll embarrass myself.” “People will judge me.” “I won’t cope.” Recognising patterns can help you notice automatic thoughts sooner.
You don’t need to fight the parrot
The aim is not to stop every negative thought or force yourself to think positively. Instead, start by noticing and labelling the thought.
“There’s that thought again.”
“My mind is telling me I’ve done something wrong.”
“That’s the thought my mental parrot has produced.”
You are creating a little space between having a thought and automatically accepting it as fact.
Catching automatic thoughts
- What was going through my mind just then?
- What did I think was going to happen?
- What did I think this situation meant?
You do not need to challenge the thought yet. Just catch it.
From noticing to recording
- the situation
- how you felt
- the automatic thought
- how strongly you believed the thought at the time
The Thought Diary can help you practise doing this.
What comes next?
Sometimes several automatic thoughts appear in the same situation. One may be particularly closely connected with the emotion you are experiencing. In CBT, this is sometimes called a hot thought. Next, we will look at how to identify which thought is carrying the most emotional weight.