Reducing Your Worries & Negative Thinking
Our thoughts – the things we tell ourselves – can keep us from feeling better about ourselves. In this section, you'll learn how to identify unhelpful thoughts, worry less frequently, and think more positively.
What you tell yourself about a trauma, and about your future, really matters. Your words will influence:
- Your mood
- How you cope with your challenges
- How you deal with people around you
- How effectively you rebuild your life
When a trauma happens, it can powerfully affect your self-talk. For many trauma survivors, their self-talk becomes distressingly negative. This will make you feel worse, not better. Instead of keeping you calm and focused on your recovery, it will make you feel fearful, depressed, or angry.
Positive thoughts can increase your sense of control and ability to cope. When your self-talk becomes negative, try telling yourself:
- "I've come through other things, I can come through this too."
- "Things will get better with time."
- "I've just got to take things slowly, one day at a time."
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Negative Beliefs About Stress Reactions
After a painful or traumatic event, people often feel intense fear or panic, depression, and emotional numbness. They may also experience rapid heartbeat, physical pain, and headaches.
These reactions and sensations are common. (For a more complete list of symptoms, check out the National Center for PTSD.) However, these reactions may seem upsetting if you have never encountered them before. You may start to worry about the stress reaction itself.
You experience two things:
- The stress reaction itself
- A concern about what this reaction means
Negative interpretations about your trauma reactions can worsen your distress and make you feel worse about yourself. Change these interpretations, and the negative feelings will decrease. You'll feel more able to cope.
Remember: what you're going through is expected and it will decrease over time.
If you feel your symptoms not decreasing or are drastically interfering with your daily life, consider speaking to a mental health professional. (Not sure how to find a therapist? Check out PAMF's resource on finding a therapist for teens.)
You may be coping well, but not notice it. We mostly notice when we feel upset or negative, and ignore the times we deal with something in a positive way.
Try to pay attention to things that you are doing that are positive (like spending time on this Web site or talking to a friend).
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Below are links PAMF accessed when researching this topic. PAMF does not sponsor or endorse any of these sites, nor does PAMF guarantee the accuracy of the information contained on them.
Break Through the Static: Working to create a caring community aimed at helping teenagers survive, heal, and grow after losing a loved one to suicide.
For More Information:
See our Personal Arguments article.
See our Guilt Thinking Patterns article.
See our Negative Thinking article.