Types of Unhelpful Thoughts

Being able to notice unhelpful thoughts is the first step you can take to adjust them to more helpful ones. Have a look at the following 8 common examples – do you recognise any of these thoughts?


overgeneralising
 

When you’ve had an experience in one situation, you assume it’s going to happen again because it’s happened before.

 
“I couldn’t do it once, so I’m not going to be able to do it ever again.”

 

Say for instance you’ve been at a party and you were feeling particularly tired that day, and you left early to go home.

 

The next time you get invited to a social event, you might think:

 

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You might use the more negative experience in one instance and assume that’s what’s going to happen again.

 

Just because you went home early once, there’s no evidence that you might have to again.