Negative Self-Talk

March 16, 2017

Interview with Shelley Carson, author of the book Almost Depressed

Mike Carruthers: One reason people get gloomy and have trouble snapping out it is what they’re saying to themselves.

Shelley Carson: We call this self-talk and people may be saying a number of negative things to themselves without really realizing that they’re doing it.

Shelley Carson, author of the book Almost Depressed…

So if your inner dialogue sounds like, “Oh I messed up again or things are never going to go right for me.” You’re actually working yourself into a depressive state and there are things that you can do about that. The 1st step is to realize what you’re saying to yourself. The 2nd step is challenge it. And the 3rd step is to replace that negative self-talk with more positive but realistic self-talk.

That negative self-talk can become a real trap.

The more negative things you say to yourself the more negative you feel about yourself and the more negative things you’re likely to say to yourself – so it becomes this downward spiral.

You can stop that downward spiral by asking if what you’re saying to yourself is actually true.

“Is it true that I always mess things up?” If you’re being honest with yourself you’ll usually find that the evidence doesn’t support all of the negative things that you’re saying to yourself. And then you can remind yourself to be a little bit more compassionate with yourself and more realistic as well.

Shelley Carson

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