NATS: Negative Automatic ThoughtS

“I have some days where I feel ok and don’t notice anything out of the ordinary and then out of the blue I start to have these horrible thoughts about people that don’t make sense.  The more I try to talk sense into myself, the more the ideas come up in my mind and then I begin to feel worried and sick inside and I can definitely feel my mood is changing.  Then I start to think there is something wrong with me, it can’t be normal to do this…”

“For me, I can be in the middle of a conversation with someone and then all of a sudden I find myself catastrophising about a part of my body that has suddenly caught my attention for some reason and I start imagining the worst and thinking I could be ill and it becomes so difficult to continue talking…”

“Sometimes I start over worrying about my children and how I would feel if anything awful happened to them.  It’s like a nagging that won’t go away and often I feel that if I don’t see this as a sign and take some kind of action, that something awful will happen.  This sense takes me over and by the end of the day I feel exhausted.  My partner often tells me that I am not being logical and that I am latching onto irrational thoughts and making them feel as if they are becoming true.  Sometimes this helps me but at other times I don’t find this supportive, especially when I have worked myself up into a frenzy over something…”

“It’s weird but when I’m not worrying about anything even though I could be really happy, I generally start to feel unsettled.  My mind feels calm but I am not at peace with this which makes me feel completely crazy.  What is wrong with me…”  

Over thinking, intrusive thoughts, obsessing, fixating, and feeling you can’t stop, can be intensely distressing for a person in this type of state.  And what can make matters worse, is the way in which we typically try to analyse what is happening as we search for an explanation.  In my experience, clients desperately seek help to “stop” or “get rid” of repetitive intrusive thoughts which is completely understandable.  Why would anyone want to put up with a mind that is creating such pain and misery.  

However, I believe the answer lies in firstly fully appreciating the true nature of “NATS”, since this condition is automatic and our capacity for prevention pretty slim.  Imagine wanting to control the weather or the natural ageing process we go through!  We can no more control our human mind than we can mother nature.  So I invite you to imagine being able to accept that whatever you are experiencing, is what you are experiencing as a direct result of the natural processing of your human mind.  Your attention is focussing on lots of troubling thoughts and ideas that are causing you to feel very anxious, disturbed, unhappy, miserable and desperate.  Acceptance is a much better place to begin to manage this anxious state because with acceptance comes the ability to breathe more calmly, and to feel that you can step away from what you are experiencing.  From this perspective, there are many therapeutic skills that can then  be effective in helping you to “manage” what is happening within you.  

Amongst the many forms of help available, at the Hove Counselling Practice we offer:

• Mindfulness and Meditation for Overthinking
• Journaling for Overthinking
• Talk Therapy for Intrusive Thoughts
• Breath Control
• Positive Imagery
• Cognitive Behaviour Therapy
• Dialectical Behaviour Therapy and
• EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique.

Regardless of the model(s) you try, most important is starting from a place of acceptance rather than avoidance, deflection, denial and panic.  My approach begins in helping a client find acceptance and I recommend EFT as a really good starting place.  Emotional Freedom Technique is a body and mind trauma treatment that helps someone to feel calmer despite having the condition of over thinking and intrusive thoughts.  It involves tapping on acupressure points around the face, neck and head which have a powerful calming effect on the body and mind.  Acupressure points are areas where there are lots of nerve endings, so these parts of the body are very sensitive to touch.  When a person taps on these acupressure points, they stimulate the production of relaxation chemicals that influence the body to come out of “stress i.e. fight and flight mode” into a more peaceful state.  As we calm down, we are then more able to be “strategic” in what we do next to help ourselves with the condition of over thinking.  Furthermore, as someone becomes skilled in using the tools they choose (with our support), they then can build confidence in knowing that they can “get beyond” the next “over thinking” crisis they experience.  

If this subject is resonating with you, I hope you will book a session to explore how you can begin to manage your condition and start to feel better and more hopeful about life.