Addressing Negative Filters
If you have read the previous week’s post, thanks so much for being here! If not, and you don’t know what negative filters are or are not sure whether you would benefit from reducing them, please go back and read last week’s post!
While there are many different kinds of negative filters, they can all be addressed in similar ways.
Firstly, it’s important to be able to recognize your thoughts for what they are, as thoughts that are not helpful and not accurate. This can be difficult to practice at first, because as a whole we are used to accepting our thoughts as facts. But, thoughts can be tricky and don’t always reflect the whole truth of the situation! It can be helpful to identify and categorize your thoughts into one or more of the negative filters discussed in the previous post, so that you can identify where you may commonly struggle and become more cognizant moving forward.
One common way to address negative filters is to challenge and “reframe” them. This can involve changing the wording of your negative thought and putting a more neutral, or even a positive, spin on it.
For example, after one challenging feed, one of your negative thoughts may look like, “My baby will never eat again, and I will have to take him to the hospital and he will be taken away from me.” This is a “catastrophizing” thought, where the worst case scenario seems like it will come true.
Now, let’s challenge that thought. Will your baby never eat again, ever? Sure, there may be an incredibly small possibility that this will happen. How likely is that to come true? Not very likely. While there may be cause for concern or further medical intervention if your baby consistently doesn’t eat, one bad feed does not mean that they will never eat again, or even that their next feed will be challenging! In addition, going to the hospital also doesn’t mean that your baby will be taken away from you. There’s a greater possibility of a positive outcome here than a negative one for all of the concerns in this statement, and the reality of the situation is most likely going to look a lot different than what your catastrophizing thought tells you it will.
Let’s practice reframing this thought. Your new thought may look like, “My baby had a challenging feed and didn’t eat much. I care very much about his health, and he will likely eat well tomorrow/when he feels better.” This statement is much more true than the previous one.
Looking at statistics and probability is one thing, but it can be difficult to fully convince your brain of the whole truth of the situation without additional support. Here is where “checking the facts” or “listing the evidence” comes into play. What makes you think that your baby will eat well tomorrow, why won’t you need to go to the hospital, and how do you know that your baby won’t be taken from you?
Let’s break this down. The first concern is that your baby will never eat again. Evidence supporting your reframe may look like, “Baby has had challenging feeds before, and has eaten well the next day after,” or, “We may have a couple of challenging feeds ahead of us, yet baby has never gone a full day without eating before.”
The second concern is that your baby will need to go to the hospital. Of course, if there is a health concern that is supported by true evidence, please do go to your doctor or the hospital. However, in this situation, the negative thought has taken control and doesn’t match the evidence. Evidence to support this thought may look like, “The doctor said that the baby is gaining a healthy amount of weight, and one bad feed will not set him back much.”
For the third concern, that the baby will be taken away from you, the evidence actually points to the opposite being true. If you take your baby to the hospital after a pattern of poor mealtimes or lack of weight gain, this reflects proper care for your baby and would be supported by the doctors.
One way to sort out this process is to make a chart, with one column for your negative thought, the next for the type of cognitive distortion, the next for your reframe of the thought, and the last for the evidence supporting your reframe. This way, you can lay out everything that may be happening internally and see the truth of the situation more clearly.
| Negative Thought | Type of Distortion | Reframed Thought | Evidence Supporting Reframe |
It may be challenging at first to practice reframing your thoughts, because negative thinking is so prevalent. However, with practice, it will become easier. You can do this!
If you feel the push to talk to someone about your negative thoughts or how you have been feeling recently, please reach out to us. We would be happy to talk through this with you and provide some additional support!
Take care,
Denise Vukmanovich, MA, LPC
Call Denise at 330-595-4563
Denise is a therapist at River Root Counseling. Her therapeutic style is collaborative, individualized, and client-focused. She believes that you, as the client, have the answers that you need to solve the problems that you face, and will guide you to find out what they are, providing support and resources along the way. Denise believes that you are the expert of your own life, and strives to fully, accurately, and compassionately understand and connect with each of her clients.