By Phil Rosenbalm
The term “ANTS” was coined by Dr. Daniel Amen, a noted psychiatrist, but was originally proposed by Dr. Aaron Beck in 1967. It means “automatic negative thoughts.” All people have them, some more than others. ANTs have been defined by the APA Dictionary of Psychology is “thoughts that are instantaneous, habitual, and unconscious.”
There are many problems associated with ANTs. They affect your mental and emotional health and contribute to anxiety and depression. They can lead to sadness, frustration, guilt, anger, unworthiness, and more. They can contribute to social anxiety disorder. They increase your level of stress. They can also affect your physical health and make it more difficult to recover from illness.
Some of the most common types of negative thoughts include all-or-nothing thinking, jumping to conclusions, mind reading, and fortune telling in negative ways, overgeneralization, catastrophizing, disqualifying the positive, using “should” and “ought” statements, labeling and mislabeling, and more. According to Aaron Beck, a pioneer in the field, many of these negative patterns developed in early life, but they can affect people at core levels. “They affect one’s way of interpreting situations and result in maladaptive coping strategies.”
Research indicates that we talk to ourselves close to 50,000 times per day and that most of that talk is about ourselves. The problem is that 80% of this self-talk is negative. These thoughts are very powerful and affect our attitude, motivations, health, etc. They can paralyze us and even cause death.
Dr. Amen recommends that you “stomp the ANTs.” He states that we first need to become aware of them, then challenge them (stomp the ANTs), and finally, replace them with much more positive, life-affirming thoughts.
In his book The Success Principles, Jack Canfield tells the story of a railroad yardman, Nick Sitzman, who accidentally got locked in a refrigerator boxcar. All the other workers had already left, and Nick started to panic. He predicted the temperature of the boxcar to be close to zero degrees. He believed that he would freeze to death. And he did, indeed, die. When an autopsy was performed, it indicated that he had frozen to death. However, the refrigeration unit was not working correctly, and the actual temperature was 55 degrees Fahrenheit. Nick died from the power of his own thoughts.
Negative thoughts affect your body in negative ways and weaken you, whereas positive thoughts affect your body in positive ways, making you more relaxed and alert and also leading to reduced pain and increased pleasure. Dr. Canfield believes we have an inner critic that is constantly berating us. However, he suggests we can transform this inner critic into a supportive inner coach “who would encourage you and give you confidence.” Dr. Canfield states we have the choice either to agree with the thoughts or not to accept them as true. In addition, he maintains our inner critic, in fact, has our best interests in mind. When it is criticizing us, it actually wants us to do better. The problem is we don’t see the whole picture.
Dr. Canfield states a complete message includes anger, fear, requests, and Love. He gives the example of a child running into the street without looking. A parent might yell at the child and say, “What’s the matter with you?” or “Were you born without a brain?” The complete statement would be more like the following: Anger–I’m mad at you for running out into the street; Fear–I’m afraid you are going to get badly hurt, or worse;” Request–I want you to pay more attention when you are playing outside, and Love– I love you so much I don’t know what I would do without you. Dr. Canfield states we need to train the inner critic to talk to us in this more complete way. He suggests that whenever we hear the critic judging ourselves, we say: “Thank you for caring,” and ask, “What is your fear?” “What do you want me to do?” “How will this serve me?” he believes this can completely transform your life.
Hypnosis is one of the most powerful ways to deal with this inner critic. If you need help getting rid of your ANTs, please consider the use of hypnosis. It is both safe and effective. For more information, please call Phil Rosenbaum at 248-688-6469. Now is the time to “Stomp out those ANTs.”
