Thought Record

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Automatic thoughts

4 minute read

Automatic thoughts are the quick interpretations that pop into your head in response to something, usually without any sense of having decided to think them. They're called automatic because they arrive on their own, fast and fully formed, and they tend to feel like plain facts rather than one possible reading.

What they sound like

They're often short. "Great, I've ruined it." "She's annoyed." "I can't handle this." Sometimes they aren't words at all. People describe a flash of a picture, like being laughed at, or a memory that surfaces and colors the moment. Those images count, and they often carry more feeling than the words do.

Automatic thoughts aren't always wrong. "I'm going to be late" can be perfectly accurate. The trouble comes when a thought is off, or only partly right, and goes unexamined because it feels so obviously true. Beck noticed that in depression these thoughts lean toward loss and failure, and in anxiety toward danger and not coping.

Why they're hard to notice

We usually notice the feeling first. Your stomach drops, or you get irritable, and only later wonder why. That's the clue. When your mood shifts, something went through your mind just before it, even if it was quick.

A few questions help bring the thought out:

The hot thought

In any upsetting moment there are usually several thoughts. One of them does most of the work. That's the hot thought, the one that best explains why you felt as strongly as you did. If you're at 90 on shame and the thought you've found is "I was late," there's probably something underneath it, like "now they see I'm unreliable." A thought record works on the hot thought, so finding it well makes everything after it easier.

Questions and statements

Anxious thoughts often come as questions. "What if they say no?" A question can't be weighed, because it doesn't claim anything. The answer your mind is giving is the real thought. "What if they say no?" usually means "They're going to say no, and I'll feel stupid for asking." Writing it that way makes it something you can look at.

Thoughts and feelings get mixed up

Everyday speech blurs them. "I feel like nobody cares" is a thought. The feeling behind it might be lonely, hurt, or sad. A rough rule is that a feeling fits in one word and a thought needs a sentence. The article on naming feelings goes into this.

References

Helpful links

Educational content, not medical advice or a substitute for professional care. Ready to try one? Fill in a thought record online or print one.