IDENTIFYING

AUTOMATIC
THOUGHTS
Sahrish Fatima Ali (Roll no. 72042)
Asayesha Kasana (Roll no. 31013)
Huma Saeed (Roll no. 31005)
Characteristics of Automatic Thoughts
1. utomatic Thoughts are stream of thoughts.
2. Automatic thoughts co-exist with other manifest stream of thoughts.
3. They are experienced by everyone and not only the people in psychological distress.
4. Most of the time unaware of them but when trained we are able to identify them which helps to evaluate
ourselves and respond to these thoughts properly. (CBT helps in the training.)
5. Automatic Thoughts are spontaneous but become fairly predictable once the underlying beliefs are identified.
6. Dysfunctional Automatic Thoughts are usually negative except in the cases of mania, hypomania, Narcissistic
personality or substance abuse.
7. Automatic Thoughts are brief , people usually are morw aware of the emotions associated.
8. Automatic thoughts are shorthand. The meaning of the thought is easily be spelled out.
9. Automatic thoughts may be in visual or verbal form or both.
10. Automatic thoughts can be evaluated according to their validity and utility.
1. Dysfunctional Automatic Thoughts are usually negative except in the cases of mania,
hypomania, Narcissistic personality or substance abuse.
2. Automatic Thoughts are brief , people usually are morw aware of the emotions
associated.
3. Automatic thoughts are shorthand. The meaning of the thought is easily be spelled
out.
4. Automatic thoughts may be in visual or verbal form or both.
5. Automatic thoughts can be evaluated according to their validity and utility.