Negative Thinking: Does it Affect Mental Health?

With the growing complications and competition in the current world, negative thinking is an everyday affair. You might wonder if negative thinking can affect your mental health. Mental illnesses are a significant cause of concern, and one should avoid incidents causing the same.

Are you curious to know more about the effect of negative thinking? This article will discuss the impact of negative thinking on mental health.

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What Is Negative Thinking?

As the name suggests, negative thinking refers to sad and upsetting thoughts regarding your life and future. While it is normal to think negatively, it becomes a concern when there is a pattern of such thoughts and feelings. Then, it starts interfering with the daily activities and productivity of individuals.

When you suffer from negative thinking, you are likely to perceive every incident in your life in a negative light. As a result, there will be a large amount of disappointment and depression symptoms. In addition, it might start affecting your behaviour, responses and relationships. While negative thinking might cause mental health issues, you need to remember that not everyone having negative thinking is suffering from mental illnesses.

What Are the Causes of Negative Thinking?

There can be multiple causes of negative thinking in individuals. However, some of the common causes are listed below.

Fear of the Future: The future is the unknown, and most people fear it. They worry about their future and consider all the worst-case scenarios if they fail to achieve their plans and dreams. Moreover, competition and insecurity might also affect their thoughts and beliefs.
Over-analysis of the Present: People might also worry about their current situation and positions, and worry about it. They wonder if they are doing a good job or performing their best. Negative thinkers might start worrying about the simplest issues, like fearing the possibility of being trapped in traffic during work.
Overthinking Past Incidents: Traumatic and embarrassing incidents of the past might also cause negative thinking in some people. This is because they keep thinking of such incidents and feel guilt and shame in their minds. It naturally affects their mental well-being.
Lack of Self-confidence: People who are not confident in their skin or body can also indulge in negative thinking. They feel that they are not good enough for any activities or achievements. As a result, they start having negative thoughts.
Catastrophizing: This is a common mental condition whereby individuals are likely to expect the worst scenarios. People who face this issue are likely to start having negative thoughts when something goes out of hand or is not according to their plan.

How Does Negative Thinking Affect Mental Health?

The effects of negative thinking can be immense on your mental health. While initially, it might seem harmless, its manifestation can be dangerous. Here is how negative thinking can affect your mental health.

1. Feelings of Depression

Depression is probably one of the most common mental health issues. Feelings of sadness, emptiness and disappointment characterise it. But, unfortunately, all these feelings are common in negative thinking as well. This kind of thinking causes people to believe that they might not have anything good to come in their life.

Such thoughts usually lead to depression. It largely affects individuals' mental state, making them lose faith in life. As a result, they get de-motivated and withdrawn, which can also generate the possibility of suicidal thoughts and tendencies.

2. Anxiety & Panic Attacks

Anxiety and panic are common mental health issues, where individuals feel extreme fear and paranoia about certain situations and incidents. They start feeling tense and restless, fearing the worst that can happen to them. It is a situation that arises out of negative thinking.

For instance, if you suffer from negative thinking, you will be anxious and experience panic attacks before any big incidents, like a presentation or social situation. This is because your mind believes that you will not be good enough or will ultimately fail at it. As a result, your mind will start feeling anxious, causing symptoms like sweating, dizziness and nausea.

3. Reduced Self-confidence

Negative thinking comes out of self-confidence, but it can also affect the already-built confidence of individuals. It constantly makes you feel incapable of anything, diverting your mind to your weaknesses rather than focusing on strengths and opportunities. This is likely to take a toll on your self-confidence.

Negative thinking will prevent you from participating in most activities and events, making you scared of embarrassment and failure. It will prevent you from experiencing life and also restrict your capabilities largely.

4. Increased Stress

Stress is a common ingredient to mental illnesses and can be a common effect of negative thinking on the brain. Negative thinking is likely to cause a massive amount of stress. While stress might be common in daily life, people experiencing negative thinking are more prone to facing excessive stress, even with the smallest problems.

Negative thinking causes people to feel stressed about anything and everything. They feel stressed about past incidents, their current activities and the possibilities of future failures. Feelings of possible failure and dissatisfaction keep a common feeling of fear and stress alive in the individuals' minds, which negatively affects their mental health.

5. Effects on Relationships

Mental health is a major asset when it comes to maintaining relationships and social life. However, with negative thinking, you might struggle to do so. It makes you feel you are not good enough for the relationship or your partner. Even though these fears and thoughts are pointless, they affect your relationships badly.

There is constant self-criticism in negative thinking, which is further enhanced when you go through rough patches in any relationship. It makes you feel worthless, which starts showing in your efforts. As a result, people often become indifferent and withdrawn in relationships.

6. Reduced Self-esteem

Just like self-confidence, negative thinking is likely to affect your self-esteem negatively. It makes you think low of yourself, affecting your self-worth. You will likely start focusing on your weaknesses, such as weight, looks, capabilities, qualifications, etc. As a result, you feel like you are not capable of anything.

Whenever you try to move on in life, you are extra conscious of your looks and capabilities. Negative thinking convinces you of your possible failures. Your self-esteem therefore crashes, and you fail to do something bigger.

7. Lower Energy and Productivity

While energy and productivity might seem like physical factors, they actually come from mental strength. Mental disturbances can reduce your productivity as you lose motivation. Negative thinking is a condition that manipulates your mind into self-blaming. You are likely to fear the possibility of making mistakes and gaining lousy feedback at work or in academics.

As a result, you might start losing motivation. It will prevent you from giving your best, thereby reducing your productivity. In addition, it will cause a loss of energy, which might cause you to stop working or take long breaks.

8. Rapid Mood Shifts

Rapid shifts in mood can be signs of mental health issues, which might develop because of negative thinking. For instance, if you are in a good mood with some close ones, a minor incident can generate negative thoughts in your mind. As a result, you will start completely withdrawing from the situation and show unusual behaviour.

The mood shifts are not quite as drastic as in some severe mental health disorders. However, it is a condition that one should consider. It is another symptom of depression. You might observe these mood swings when your mind takes a break from negative thinking and then returns to the same.

9. Leading to OCD

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) refers to repeated and persistent thoughts and images, often becoming an obsession. These are usually related to complete cleanliness and other ways to gain perfection. They might generate negative thinking, as individuals tend to improve their activities and are hardly ever satisfied.

When you are always thinking negatively, you are more likely to get obsessed with becoming the best or perfect in your activities. It will affect your way of thinking and intrude on your daily activities, forcing you to think about the same almost all day.

10. Possibilities of Addiction

Substance and alcohol addiction might come from multiple reasons and causes. However, common causes can be disappointment and depression. It often occurs because of negative thinking. It generates a chronic feeling of disappointment and dissatisfaction with everything in life. As a result, people turn to depression.

It can cause them to start consuming alcohol and illegal substances if they fail to receive proper treatment. In due time, they will be addicted to these. While addiction might seem like a physical problem, it can cause severe mental health issues and breakdowns.

How to Stop Negative Thinking?

Now that you know the negative thinking effects on the brain, you must be wondering about the ways to prevent it. Here are some tips to help you cope with negative thinking and eventually stop it

1. Replace Your Negative Thoughts

If you are unable to overcome negative thoughts, try to replace them. For this, you need to notice the pattern. For instance, if your mind develops negative thoughts after a particular event, you must manipulate your thoughts into believing that you are capable of everything. This will prevent the possibility of negative thinking development.

2. Keep a Journal

You can also take daily notes of your negative thoughts in a journal diary. This will help you identify the patterns of your negative thinking and thereby address the same. Writing down your thoughts might also help you cope with tough situations.

3. Try to Appreciate Things

It would help if you made a conscious effort to like your surroundings, appreciate them and express gratitude. All these are directed towards identifying and appreciating the good things in your life. When you do this, you divert your mind from negativity and try to find positive thoughts.

4. Change Old Habits

Negative thinking might develop habits of OCD and encourage you to go over the same things repeatedly to make them perfect. Instead, try to change these habits and replace them with healthier ones. For example, divert your mind from a single task and focus on other activities or modes of entertainment.

Apart from these, you can also consider a psychologist or counsellor and participate in professional sessions to get over your problems of negative thinking. However, it is essential to address it to avoid future possibilities of mental illnesses.

As this article observed, the effect of negative thinking might be severe on your mental health and well-being. You must not neglect it as harmless feelings if it is a persistent issue. It is likely to cause disturbances in your mental health, which can lead to mental illnesses. You can follow the tips listed here to cope with such thoughts.

Frequently Asked Questions

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Can I change my negative thoughts to positive ones?

Yes, you can do so. In fact, it is the best way to prevent negative thinking. However, the process will be tricky, and you might require professional help.

What is the leading cause of negative thinking?

Various mental health issues like OCD, depression and GAD can be considered causes of negative thinking. Moreover, it can simply generate from a particular thinking pattern or environmental factors.