Believe it or not, negative thoughts are your brain’s way of trying to protect you.
Your mind is like an advanced software program, constantly picking up new information and sorting pieces of intel into “good” and “bad” piles, so that it knows whether to repeat, delete, or shelve for later.
The problem is, the more your brain does this, the better it gets at it. Negative thinking becomes an efficient super-highway in the prefrontal cortex, bypassing perspective and rational thought.
For example, if you post a photo on Instagram and it gets 99 good comments, and 1 bad comment, for the rest of the day your mind might hone in on that one outlier. Focusing on this is called a negativity biasTrusted Source.
On top of that, our built-in mechanism to counterbalance these negative thoughts — the frontal lobe — can be easily overridden by fear, sadness, or trauma.
Research suggests that certain mental health conditions are related to rumination, excess worry, or negative self-perception, which can all contribute to negative thinking.
Some of these include:
anxiety disorders
avoidant personality disorder (APD)
bipolar disorder
borderline personality disorder (BPD)
depression
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
PTSD
rejection sensitive dysphoria, a feature of ADHD
Thanks to something called “neuroplasticity” — the plastic nature of your brain — you may be able to reroute the thoughts in your brain with some attention, intention, and training.
Your mind is like an advanced software program, constantly picking up new information and sorting pieces of intel into “good” and “bad” piles, so that it knows whether to repeat, delete, or shelve for later.
The problem is, the more your brain does this, the better it gets at it. Negative thinking becomes an efficient super-highway in the prefrontal cortex, bypassing perspective and rational thought.
For example, if you post a photo on Instagram and it gets 99 good comments, and 1 bad comment, for the rest of the day your mind might hone in on that one outlier. Focusing on this is called a negativity biasTrusted Source.
On top of that, our built-in mechanism to counterbalance these negative thoughts — the frontal lobe — can be easily overridden by fear, sadness, or trauma.
Research suggests that certain mental health conditions are related to rumination, excess worry, or negative self-perception, which can all contribute to negative thinking.
Some of these include:
anxiety disorders
avoidant personality disorder (APD)
bipolar disorder
borderline personality disorder (BPD)
depression
obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
PTSD
rejection sensitive dysphoria, a feature of ADHD
Thanks to something called “neuroplasticity” — the plastic nature of your brain — you may be able to reroute the thoughts in your brain with some attention, intention, and training.