Don’t Believe Everything You Think: The Truth About Automatic Thought

Ever caught yourself thinking, “I’m such a failure,” or “Everyone’s judging me,” or the classic, “Why even bother?” all before you’ve finished brushing your teeth?

Welcome to the wonderful world of automatic thoughts. They are the uninvited guests in your mind who don’t even knock before barging in and making themselves comfortable.

Automatic thoughts are those sneaky, lightning-fast mental comments that often fly under the radar but pack a punch. They tend to be negative, self-critical, and let’s be honest a little dramatic. No, Janet from accounting probably wasn’t giving you death stares all meeting long, but your brain convinced you otherwise.

These thoughts were first labeled in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and are believed to come from deeper beliefs we carry like emotional hand-me-downs we didn’t ask for but somehow end up wearing every day. And while they’re not facts (even though they swear they are), they do influence how we feel and act.

At Friendly Psychiatry, we help you slow things down and show you how to actually listen to those automatic thoughts. Not so you can agree with them, please don’t, but so you can challenge them. Spoiler alert: most of them are wrong, outdated, or just plain rude.

Think of it like mental spring cleaning. We’ll help you toss out the junk thoughts, keep the helpful ones, and maybe add a few fresh, kind ones to the mix. You deserve to speak to yourself like someone you actually like.

Why? Because your mental health journey isn’t just about surviving it’s about thriving. And somewhere under all that mental noise…Yep, there’s joy. Let’s unveil it together.