And we connect in fractions of a second. But can we foresee our future? Can we see how our psychology is affected by watching Reels, sticking to the white screen, and always being eager to know what is new? The Internet has also improved our lives.

And these blessings are now becoming a cure for all humanity, especially the next generation. Let’s understand that today, the high usage of the Internet creates Anxiety and Depression.

Why is high internet usage responsible for Anxiety?

Before we dig into the concept of Internet use and its relationship with Anxiety, let’s self-assess first.

Rate the questions below on a scale of 0 to 5 and understand where you are.

1. How many times are you busy scrolling and postponing your important work or studies?
2. How many times have you been worried that you need to communicate in social gatherings?
3. How many times do you find yourself imagining Internet stuff when you’re offline?
4. How many times are you lying or hiding your internet usage from others?
5. How many times are you comfortable in communication with a virtual friend but afraid of a physical friend?
6. How many times are you distracted from your important job by watching something online?
7. Do you lose your sleep while you are online?
8. How many times are you unaware of your time while binge-watching on the Internet?
9. How many times do you avoid going out with your loved one because you want to use the Internet?
10. How many times have you been frightened by the thought of life without the Internet?

If you score between 40 and 50, you have high Internet usage. Less than 40 and above 30 moderate, and between 20 and 30 moderate to mild.  

Circle of Internet Usage and Anxiety

The cycle below is very useful to understand why High Internet usage increases our Anxiety and leads to Depression.

Productive Time with Internet Usage

The Internet is accessible to everyone, everywhere, with no restrictions on time or place. Exceptional to the rules made by some organisations and institutes. Internet usage during work or studies kills time but makes one less attentive to tasks. More engrossed in the completion of work, not the productivity of the work. Being more engaged in completion than in productivity leads to low-quality work. When someone chooses not to use the Internet at work, it feels like such a sacrifice, and they expect more results from the tasks they did. When shallow productivity expects deep results, people become more anxious as they overthink doing more than is required, even though the desired results are impossible. These distorting thoughts distance one from productivity, leading to excessive Internet use.

Lack of Attention Span

Productivity is achieved through persistent, consistent work. Doing the same tasks over and over, you become a master. But when attention is focused on completing tasks and achieving high results, attention to detail suffers. Because all focus is on results, not on actions. When actions are shallow, results are also shallow. When you do tasks as required, you can’t become an expert, as the basics aren’t clear. This leads to a lack of attention at work and a feeling of low confidence, Anxiety about fears and results, which results in overthinking.

Rush to meet the deadline.

Postponement is commonly researched among high Internet users. They are more into virtual connections and entertaining themselves, seeking new information, but which is of no use, and are anxious about what is next. These are thoughts commonly found among users as their impulsivity increases, leading them to seek pleasure and avoid productive tasks. Now, when someone wants to meet a deadline, it is the only task. They believe in meeting the date, not the qualitative work. Rushing to meet the deadline only feeds more Anxiety about missing it.

Self-Negative Reflection.

When one is unproductive and unable to perform as one should, one feels empty about oneself. They frequently meet failures, miss their promises, and regularly miss deadlines; they feel like failures. On top of that, more hitting points when family and mentors share negative feedback about non-productivity and lack of effort, added to self-negative reflections. Reflections are correct, but increase more overthinking and Anxiety. It is hard for someone who feels negative about themselves to maintain a routine. Such scenarios can make a person feel depressed or rebellious in their own actions.

Future Prediction

With the lack of routine, one can imagine his life as dark, like an all-or-nothing feeling. Slowly, you found that everything was meaningless and worthless. There is no hope for the future, and you cannot see any future. You predict that, no matter what you do, you won’t achieve the desired results. You will gradually become negative about your productivity, feeling like you’re losing your job or scoring low in your studies. When you reach to the saturation point and believe that the desired results will not be achieved, you choose not to act, which proves your belief is correct. (Negative Conceptual Cycle as per Cognitive Psychology)

Need Distraction

To get rid of negative overthinking and future prediction, you need some distractions. This distraction is nothing but the Internet again. You again chose to go online, watch a binge, and avoid and ignore your core thoughts. You avoid thinking about your actions and completing tasks until it gets worse. This cycle is unbroken and keeps you in this roller coaster, increasing your panic, Anxiety, worries and overthinking, which leads to Depression.

How Counselling help to overcome…

Psychoeducation sessions help to reduce Internet usage, and various other therapies help to navigate this maladaptive behaviour. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy helps correct dysfunctional beliefs and thoughts, and rectify behaviours. Interpersonal therapy helps identify what needs to be done and which aspects are dysfunctional. Dialectical Behaviour Therapy helps install new behaviours and achieve positive results.

WHAT IS COGNITIVE DISTORTION?

Cognitive distortion means biased or irrational thoughts about something or someone, where a person may not get a factual view of a person, situation, or experience. This cognitive distortion creates lots of hassle, which affects mental health. A person may face anxiety, negative thought patterns, stress, depressive or sad mood, mood swings and overthinking, trust issues, etc.

Cognitive distortion create thought pattern like I am not adequate, good or I am bad. This pattern is also take another information as this world is tough to survive or if one thinks of money means he is bad person etc. These are the distortion which hides the facts and generalised any situation in all or nothing. Cognitive distortion are always not harmful but overthinking of them with distortion create lots of thought trouble.

WHAT CAUSES A NEGATIVE THOUGHT PATTERN?

There are several factors that cause a negative thought pattern. But some of them are very important to understand as they affect your life regularly. Meanwhile, those factors are mostly uncontrolled as they are external factors. Negative thoughts are forming from survival and fighting.

We have been through a lot of stories of human survival and fights. So, it completely differs from person to person how one can form a negative thought patter.

Socio-Psycho Environment:

It is completely an external factor where one can not have control over social factors. As we can’t choose our parents and kids. We can’t select our family. So it is one of the most important factors in which environment you are living.

Peer pressure, social structure, financial background and culture at home majorly develop one’s thinking pattern. Too much controlling environment and carrot and stick upbringing are responsible for developing a negative thought pattern.

Traumatic Experience:

People who experienced broken marriages of parents or parents fights over and over, separation or divorce from a loved one, accidents and health, long illness etc are traumatic situations for any person. Such experiences force a person to think negatively first. Such situations also create lots of cognitive distortion. Such people also may face an issue with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD).

Mental Health:

Environment plays a major role in anyone’s life. However mental health has an equivalent role to play in negative thoughts. Long periods of mood swings, depression, anxiety and stress create negative thought patterns. A person is vulnerable to his beliefs and emotions. Many times they act out of their feelings causing more negativity.

Set High Expectations:

When you set high standards without knowing your capacity or capability creates lots of negative thoughts. As you develop self-doubt, feelings of inadequacy and achieving superficial goals where you become inactive. You may develop a negative overthinking pattern and be unable to take any action as you are attached to your outcome.

Diet and Health:

If you are deprived of Vitamin B12, D3, B1, B6, and B9 then it affects your thought pattern.

WHAT IS THE RELATION BETWEEN NEGATIVE THINKING AND DEPRESSION?

You know depression. Depression is typically a mental disorder where one finds oneself helpless, hopeless and sad even on a good day. Depression and negative thoughts work like a circle. It is like what comes first? Hen or Egg. So once the mind becomes like Chakravyuh.

When you are negative about anything in your life, your feelings are sad, annoyed, angry, frustrated, and depressed. You can feel more stress than actual. You are neglecting all facts, and your mind tells you all or nothing. You also overgeneralize, and most of the time, you cut back on important and positive information. It gives you more sad emotions than you ever felt.

When someone feels depressed they feel not to come out of bed. Because they feel worthless in everything, they try to avoid certain things that make them stronger but avoid it. They try to find excuses or overthink and find negative points as excuses for not doing. So negative thoughts and depression are cyclical.

WHAT ARE THE TYPES OF NEGATIVE THOUGHT PATTERN?

It is important to understand types of negative thought pattern. What happened to your mind when you think negative about anything. As mentioned earlier our mind works on survival mechanism. But excessive negative thinking creates lots of mental health issues.

All Or Nothing Thinking:

People who are thinking All Or Nothing means black and white or failure and success. They eliminate lots of information especially in problematic situation. It is hard for them to solve problem or to see other options while facing challenges. They will see things like, “Success would be possible if I am perfectionist.” They discounted lots of information and lose the chunk of their information.

Emotions And Reasoning:

People with the negative thought pattern many times rationally think about their emotions. In the situation of anxiety, depression or stress they think they should not take an action. Rather they avoid taking important steps. Say, “I am anxious to speak with the others so let me avoid communication.” They try to give reasons to their emotions.

Overgeneralisation:

People with negative thought pattern overgeneralised most of the information. They consider small mistake as a big fault. They buried themselves in to the thinking of good at nothing or stupid as they make small mistakes.

Putting Statements:

When one cannot see things as naturally without judgments they see only those they want to see or feel. In negative thoughts pattern people make a lots of statements. In simple way put labels like ,”I am this….,I am that….” Eventually  they start with the negative self-talk. Small fall is big failure for them.

Reaching To Conclusion:

As they are not capable to solve the problem they reach to conclusion like this is only going to happen. Say if they see an accident they reach to conclusion that a passengers in the car demised before they take any concrete actions.

Filter And Identification:

People when think negative have filtration of the bad side of the situation. They play victim card and identified that bad side of the situation with themselves. They try to see things only as bad happened to them. But they do not want to see or not realised to see good side of that situation as well.

Prediction Or Fortune Telling:

Negative thought pattern create lots of judgements. Based in the assumptions a person may predict this is only going to happen. Or they predict the fortune tells about the future. They also tendency to read mind of the other people.

Magnifying Or Catastrophic:

Either magnify the information. So minutely observed the information which is not required. Or Catastrophic that also analyse on the large scale also create lots of trouble.

Complete Or No Control:

People with Negative Thought patter either try to control the situation or they left having no control. In this case they really lose relationship, good opportunities or mental health.

Self Blame:

People blame self a lot when they think negative. As they overgeneralised and filtered most of the information they do not consider other facts. They blame self so easily as if they only responsible for everything. In such thought pattern they have lots of “should” and “must”. They force self to accomplish certain tasks even if it is of no control.

Mistaken Beliefs:

People with negative thinking assume about situation, people and outcomes. They most of the time have mistaken belief through which they see or analyse the information. Based on the Wrong beliefs they really take half information and act upon that.

BREAK YOUR NEGATIVE THOUGHT PATTERN THROUGH THERAPY

Now, there is no question whether therapies are effective or not. As it helps in curing lots of mental disturbance. One can also take a help of Psychologist to overcome Negative thought pattern. Cognitive Behaviours Therapy proves best results in this kind of thought pattern.

As we build negative thought pattern due to social-cognitive schema. Where by working on the blockage and understanding the real scenario helps a person to overcome negative thought pattern. Apart from talk therapy there are various other ways to deal with negative thought pattern.

1) Keep Negative Thought Journal where you can check it with the fact sheet on timely basis.

2) Give Balance thought. This is wonderful exercise which will improve your cognitive to perceive any information in details without deleting or discounting it.

3 Improve Self Talk. Most of the people really do not know what they talk to self. They really are not conscious enough about their thoughts and leads to wrong decisions and behaviours.

4) Be Honest with yourself

5) Make a fact sheet. Regularly or in interval check your fact sheet. Because once you develop such habit to check with the facts your negative thought pattern breaks.

6) Avoid Negative News and Social Media.

7) Breathing Exercise helps a lot to deal with your thinking pattern.

8) See a professional help. It is not harmful to take therapy. Because when you take therapy sessions you learn lot about yourself your life and situation you faced.

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