Anxiety keeps you stuck in an endless cycle of uncontrollable thoughts and worries. Unfortunately, the more you worry about something, the stronger your thoughts become and begin controlling you. This cycle often makes many feel like spiraling out of control with no direction or end in sight.

Negative thought traps inevitably make anxiety even worse. Worsening this issue is that the more you have them, the deeper your anxiety roots itself into your life. These patterns keep your body in a state of hypervigilance — causing you to feel anxious, stressed, and on edge constantly. But what exactly are thought traps?

5 Common Thought Traps

1. Trying to Predict The Future

People who deal with anxiety are often hyper-focused on the possibilities of every outcome. They cycle through a pattern: “What if this happens…then what if that happens next?” Once they sink into it, it takes them down a rabbit hole that is hard to get out of.

This thought trap also manifests itself by trying to prepare ourselves for the future as a way to ease anxiety. However, this doesn’t exactly keep anxiety at bay.

2. Overgeneralization

We all have bad experiences. It’s an inevitable part of life. Someone with anxiety tends to take these past experiences and apply them to future occurrences. For example, maybe someone has messed up a presentation in front of a group in the past. Then, when they give future presentations, this experience is in their mind. This causes them to assume that they are bound to mess up, even if there is no evidence of that occurring.

3. Making Assumptions

At some point, we all make assumptions. Sometimes, these assumptions are spot on, while other times, we couldn’t be more off base. Assumptions without evidence are something that people with anxiety often deal with. They assume someone is mad at them or thinks the worst things about them. Or, they will assume that other people are talking about them being their back.

Another component of this thought trap is assuming that the worst will happen.

4. Catastrophizing

Anxiety causes the mind to spiral out of control. It’s a thought trap telling you the worst possible thing has happened. For example, someone may convince themselves that their partner or loved one has been in a car accident after not hearing from them for a while. Another example could be assuming they will be fired soon because their boss was short with them earlier in the day.

Catastrophizing takes every “What if” scenario and assumption that crosses the mind and turns it into a firm reality.

5. Emotions = Reality

One of the final thought traps that people with anxiety deal with relates to their emotions. They will often mistake their emotions as being firm evidence of reality. This is when someone who has catastrophized something happening to their loved one is turned into a firm belief that it did occur only because they felt it in their gut.

Can You Overcome  Thought Traps?

The first step to overcoming thought traps is to recognize yours. Reading above, you are likely going through and identifying many things you do that are thought traps. It’s just that you didn’t necessarily have a name for them before. If you recognize your own thought traps, you are already on the way to overcoming them.

Overcoming thought traps takes time and effort. It takes work and dedication to rewire your brain to think and process things differently. Regardless of age, the brain can always be changed for the better.

If you are struggling with thought traps because of your anxiety, don’t hesitate to reach out for support. Anxiety therapy can help you take control back over your thoughts.