Stop Positive Thinking, Study Says

TIME:

In the past 50 years, people with mental problems have spent untold millions of hours in therapists' offices, and millions more reading self-help books, trying to turn negative thoughts like "I never do anything right" into positive ones like "I can succeed." For many people -- including well-educated, highly trained therapists, for whom "cognitive restructuring" is a central goal -- the very definition of psychotherapy is the process of changing self-defeating attitudes into constructive ones.

Read the whole story: TIME

Comments

[Karen Luniw - Huffpost Blogger]

Love it! What you resist persists (check this video out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cp-wciRqocw) . Period. If don't acknowledge our negative feelings - they go 'underground' so to speak and stay with us manifesting in poor self-esteem or ill-health.

The key is not to live in your negative emotions - deal with them and then the affirmations can feel more real. Or, at least start to feel more real.

[Jason Mannino - Huffpost Blogger]

The underlying premise is here, to me, is "What do you believe?" It isn't that affirmations and positive thinking don't work. However, in order for them to work one must do some housecleaning. One must engage in personal exploration to uproot the deeply held negative beliefs that are counter to positive thinking and affirmations. When that occurs one can then actually belie believe the positive thinking/a­ffirmation­s and they become useful tools. So again, I think what gets illustrated in this article is that there actually needs to be some level of belief in the positive thinking and affirmations. This is where I think books like "The Secret" partially missed the boot.

I have always said that affirmations aren't just for repeating sweet little sayings. In actuality, if you do them with awareness they are tools that help you determine where your negative patterns lie so that you can work to resolve them.

[JustAThought56]

There are few things in life as frustrating as finding some study being promoted that completely ignores or fails to understand a large body of research that supports simple, well-established practice.

In the cognitive restructuring that the article mentions, the therapist DOES NOT recommend that the patient blindly apply mindless affirmations to their psychic wounds, as the article states.

The negative self-talk is confronted for what it is - distortions in thinking. Common distortions are "all or nothing" thinking (like "I always fail," and "I never win."), magnifying negatives (I'm overweight and no one will hire me) or minimizing the positive (sure I'm articulate but that won't help me get a job), and many more.

Once identified and confronted, the negative distortion is countered with the actual and positive truth ("everyone fails and succeeds, wins and loses, including me. I may succeed at this if I try, and even if I fail, I can always try something else. I can succeed!" and "Many people who are overweight have jobs. I dress professionally and present myself well. I feel good about how I look!" and "I am an excellent communicator - it is a real strength.")

It's not rocket science. Read the bestseller "The New Mood Therapy" by David Burns, MD. It's been around for almost 30 years and the approach is supported by a volume of research.

[Jason Mannino - Huffpost Blogger]

...I think we're talking about the same thing here....

[jcause28]

It seems like the sort of thing that depends on person to person and someone's definition on positive thinking. I used to, and still often do, have very negative thoughts. During these times I am very depressed and not as apt to finish things. However, if I think more positively, then I find myself in a better mood and more productive. I never think about winning the lottery or things like that, that seems very silly and un realistic. But I think that I can have fun with what I am doing and that I can try for more. But I try to concentrate on the process rather than the end result. But hey, we're all a bit different.

[Cool-headed]

Suppose you have an exam tomorrow, you have studied and have a fair chance of passing. Which is best, to repeat to yourself "I will fail" or "I will pass"? Of course it can only have a good effect if you think positive. That's not tacky, it's just logical. We can influence our minds in countless ways.

[alkamm]

Well, if you act as if you are going to fail, which many excellent students do, you often surprise yourself because you studied desperately hard and were only self-debunking.

[MJinCanada]

To be honest, I've always found the "positive affirmation" thing to be somewhere between tacky and dishonest. It couldn't get past my BS detector.

On the other hand, getting out and doing something worthwhile (at least worthwhile to me) always feels good.

[StephenJK]

Positive affirmation is dumb. Confidence in your abilities and knowledge of your boundries will help you succeed.

[MJinCanada]

Yep. Knowing what you can do and doing it well. And occasionally trying new things because finding out you're good at something new and interesting is a boost. And being able to laugh when your best friend explains that when she said "Anyone can learn to play tennis," she really meant "Anybody but you."

It just hit me what's so depressing about "positive thinking": being your own sycophant is just sad.

[naschkatze]

One psycho-babble story I agree with. It is very harmful both physically and psychically to suppress "negative" emotions.

[InfinteShibumi]

This is a very limited study--and disturbing that so many are latching onto it.

[Chaimirija]

Well, think of the bill of goods we have been sold.

[bluerthanblue15]

"This is a very limited study--and disturbing that so many are latching onto it."

I think there may be something to this study. Was it Carl Jung that exhorted us to embrace our 'shadowy' selves as well as that part of ourselves we can realistically and positively acknowledge.

[LordMoon]

People are so used to doing things unconsciously, that the only examples we have of people being what they feel inside are unconscious ones. We see many examples of unconsciousness daily, for example emotional abuse and also unconscious acts of anger, violence.

But it's when we experience those states with full awareness, full consciousness that these emotions can become transformative. Awareness, is the key.

We have at least two wings, that we can use to transform ourselves, and the lives of everyone around us. They are love and and anger.

If we only use love then our love will have no risk, and if we only use anger then our anger will have no compassion. To use them we need to be fully aware. That is the difference.

[athenasword]

I like this -- there is real power in embracing "what is". Not trying to sugar-coat something, or convince yourself that it is some other way. I believe if one is truly grounded in reality then there is a chance for growth and forward movement.

[StephenJK]

I'm not sure what the article states but, negative thoughts are simply motivations and positive thoughts are reinforcements in our own confidences. In ourselves, our methods and our hopeful results. If you just think negative thoughts what kind of life is that? I could NEVER live that way. How depressing.

[Chlowina]

That's just it, we have no life. When you suffer from depression as millions of us do, thinking negative thoughts are the only thoughts we can put together. You can't think negative, we can't think positive. We think of death, suicide, loss of jobs, love, money, anticipatory anxiety, etc. We have absolutely no control over it.

Myself, I have TRD Treatment Resistant Depression. I cannot take any medications because of side-effects, so I suffer, meditate when my brain allows me a good few minutes or hours, listen to audio tapes on mindfulness and pray.

I hope you never have to experience depression. I wouldn't wish it on my worse enemy. It is hell. Literally.

[StephenJK]

I hear you. I've always had my bouts with depression. EVERYONE does. Some of us have changes in our chemistry that make it harder, if not impossible, to overcome those bouts of depression. I think something that helps a lot is getting a hobby that you love doing and are good at. Owning a dog (or another pet that is capable of showing emotion) is another helper. Excercise is another. And a good diet is another. I did all of these things and although I still have my bouts with depression they are fewer and shorter duration. I hope you find some measure of peace within and happiness.

[classicalgeek]

Listening to classical music has been found to alleviate depression.

[Chaimirija]

Depression and anxiety are motivations, too. It is your brain telling you something is wrong. But for years the experts' solution was to give you a pill, not change your life.

[Kathryn Maver]

Not always. Some therapists and physicians recognize that you can get out of a deep depression by integrating medications with behavioral therapies.

[MJinCanada]

When there's nothing else you can change about your life, or when you can't make a move to change your life because of depression, the pills are worth it. It's a lot easier to get your act together once the cloud lifts.

[GrainOSand]

This article brings many things to mind.

One school says...do not label anything...accept all that is, there is no good, there is no bad...only perception, which can be lost (abandoned) to achieve a peace, a neutrality, a void...capable of being this or that but leaning not in either direction and caring not moment to moment which way the pendulum swings and never cognizant enough of the swing to label it good or bad, left or right, up or down, in or out...or succinctly put...the bi-polar nature of opposing forces.

Another school says -- Been down so long down ain’t bad anymore or immerse in whatever state to know the other side...because at the highest manifestation of “this” one can begin to detect the smallest manifestation of “that”. Don’t believe it, check out day to night. In order to see the stars darkness is required. Oh how beautiful the pain of lessons learned. School of hard knocks.

Yet another schools say...fairy tales will come true...it can happen to you...if you are young at heart. Lemonade out of lemons. The little engine that could. Can do, will do, must do -- I am!. Singing in the rain, or if your are Grace Jones instead of Gene Kelly...walking in the rain. The sun will come out tomorrow on the good ship lollypop when it pulls into port just as the love boat is leaving for Fantasy Island to pick up a changed person.

[ReedYoung]

I can't! Maybe I should try some positive affir-- d'oh!

[Diogenis]

And someone gets paid to do these studies? Where can I find.....an application?

[rainbowblue]

Usually a college psych department...

[FromthePitofDespair1]

Retake: How about talking about narcissism as motivating themes for therapy? How about talking about those of the "think postive" tribe being passive aggressive as hell?

[Chaimirija]

How are they being passive aggressive?

[FromthePitofDespair1]

Positive thinking is rooted in a kind of cognitive narcissism, the result of the New Age movement. The New Age movement in its purest form is simply narccisism. The result of this, and much of it was from
people who considered themselves liberals, is censoring or what I call conversation Nazis. The left policing the left for proper behavior mostly rooted in flakey new ageisms.

The "think positive" or New Age crowd cannot tell the difference between a true intellectual conversation and "being negative." A real conversation in their book constiutes "being negative."
They leave the room. They mumble under their breath. They are phenomenally passive aggressive. Don't infringe on their bubble with the real world. Happy Land is a lot of work but so is seeing reality.

How about talking about narrcisism as motivating themes for therapy? How about talking about being who are of the "think postive" tribe are passive aggressive as hell?

I am glad to see this but definitely not suprised.