Anxiety has a really bad habit of dressing up thoughts as fact. Ask anyone with anxiety, and they’ll tell you just how quickly a negative thought can spiral. And you’ll be painfully aware of just how easy it is to get swept up in the “what ifs” and lose sight of reality. 

Because before you know it, that small, seemingly innocent scenario you thought of is suddenly a huge disaster movie with an endless budget and a flair for drama, and it’s impacting your physical and mental health. But you don’t have to live like this.

So, what do you do and where do you start?

Catch Yourself Mid-Spiral

Easier said than done, however, stopping yourself is only half the battle; the other half is realising it’s happening.

If you find your mind drifting off mid-morning meeting with your boss, and all of a sudden you’re imagining you’ve put your foot in it, upset the boss, and the entire company hates you, take a step back and stop. Is that really going to happen? What proof do you have that this is how things will go? Taking a moment to analyse your thinking can stop you going from zero to a hundred in 0.3 seconds. It might take some practice to get here, but once you realise the patterns, you’ll be able to snap out of it faster than ever.

Do Something

A handy tip for breaking those negative thought patterns is to put a physical barrier in your brain. Nothing derails a reckless train of thought quite like giving it another task. Take the dog for a walk, strip the bed, wash the dishes, and try to choose something to watch on Netflix. These are all tasks that force you to address an immediate issue and can help redirect your mind from where it was going to somewhere less panic-inducing, even if it’s just for a short while.

Journal

When things are stuck in your head, they can become major dramas, and before you know it, you’re writing a script starring yourself and me, single-handedly ruining your life and the world.

Take those thoughts out of your head and put them on paper. Don’t even try to reframe them. Write them down exactly how they’re running through your mind.

The trick with this is seeing things out in the open and in black and white, which can help you assess just how realistic they are and if they deserve any more of your time and attention. If they don’t, throw the entire thought away. If it does have merit, then you can write down what you think could happen, how you could avoid it, and what the risks might be. This way, if you predict chaos and it actually unfolds, you know exactly what to do.

Get Help

Sometimes your thinking patterns might need more intervention than you can give them alone. And that’s ok. Talking to someone you trust can be helpful, as can getting expert mental health support. You might find that you need to try supplements, medication, or tools like medical weed that can help take control back. The thing is to not struggle alone, know there is help out there and grab it with both hands or else those negative thoughts will have won.