How do I stop negative thinking?

[Marc0133]

As of now, my anxiety has gotten to the point where whenever I think of something upsetting or troubling in my life, my heart rate will increase to the maximum (not sure if it's tachycardia or not). It's really worrying me because I haven't felt like this before. And it's all down to negative thinking.

The problem is, I'm not really the "happy go-lucky" type so I find it hard to try positive thinking because I'm more introverted and less social like. However, I feel I've relied on it too much and need a balance of positive and negative thinking because I feel like I'm now at a risk of a heart attack if I continue this thinking. I've also been surrounded by sarcastic people who say things that upset me and cause my anxiety to kick in. It's gotten to the point where I can't enjoy my life anymore. Nothing cheers me up and because of that, I'm now afraid my chances of dying from a heart attack are greater!

I'm a 21 year old male btw. I've suffered from depersonalization/derealization lately as well which I think might be a contributing factor. So how can I help myself before it's too late? Thanks.

[daisychained]

Hi, I think it's important to understand how negative thoughts patterns work not only recognise they are there, but to pick them apart to find where they started and how it progressed and then you'll have something to work with when it comes to breaking the cycle. Although quick fixes can get you by, a bit of positive thinking and distractions etc but I think it needs more...

Imagine someone going to the Dr with a fever. Dr treats the fever (bad thoughts) with advice to keep cool (positive thinking) and although it helps, the infection (root cause of neg thoughts) which caused the fever (neg thoughts) is still causing damage underneath (anxiety). That would be managing the symptoms short term but not overall. I hope that made sense!!

It's something that makes sense to me, just an opinion lol

[Gambit62]

Don't know if this post will help

healthunlocked.com/couchtob...

as daisychained says - its quite easy to get in ruts with our thoughts. You might find it helpful as well as trying to identfy where they come from, to challenge them a bit. If people are sarcastic then that isn't necessarily an attack on you - it may just be their humour style which means that rather than attacking you they are actually saying that they like you and you are part of the group - know it might sound really weird but it could be true. My family (father, brother and myself, all had a really weird sense of humour ... some times I think my brother and I would take it a bit far and in some contexts it wasn't always obvious between us that we were pulling the other ones leg but ...

trying to come up with other explanations can be helpful in trying to get out of thinking ruts - its called 'reframing'.

Another example might be that someone walks straight past me in the street - I could think they are ignoring me and get realy wound up trying to figure out why ... but it could easily have been that they were actually caught up in their thoughts and didn't see me .... or that they are short-signed and really didn't see me.

Really hope that you manage to find something that works for you.