# ANTs



## kenshins (Nov 6, 2012)

I am a little confused about what is ANTs. I tend to have a few ANTs in when I am at home by myself thinking about certain conversations and how I didn't perform as well as I did and how I think others perceived me. But to me, that doesn't really bother me too much. I am more concerned about the ANTs that are embedded in me which makes me feel anxious in social situations. Like I am not actually thinking about anything bad, I am just suddenly anxious and that anxiety makes me blush or sweat when I just get a little bit 'shocked' by a personal question or getting attention. 
So my question is are the ANTs the things I mentioned first or second? And if it includes the second, then how is it possible to stop thinking about something that you don't actually know what you are thinking?

Thanks for any advice


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## Mina84 (Jan 2, 2011)

I asked myself the same question when I was started with the tapes. Dr. Richards could've explained it better. 
I also think that there are two types of ANTs, conscious and subconscious ANTs. The conscious ANTs are easily to spot and stop, they are explicit negative thoughts about the past or future. 

The subconscious ANTs are more difficult to identify, but if you ask yourself after an anxiety situation "what was I afraid of?", you'll see that behind that feeling of anxiety there is usually an ANT hiding. Before being able to stop the unsconscious ANTs, we have to dig them up. I think these thoughts are so deep rooted that we don't even realize we're having them!

Today I was feeling very anxious having a conversation with a classmate. I didn't realize until now, it was just the reaction to a voice telling me I was making a fool of myself = ANT. Why did I think I was making a fool of myself?? Because I was acting in a way that people normally don't. Why was I acting strangely? Because I was feeling anxious. You see it's a vicious cycle. But if we want to break it, we have to start somewhere. We start changing our cognitive thinking first, this will help us change our emotions/reactions to these thoughts.


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## kenshins (Nov 6, 2012)

Cool, thanks! That makes sense. So I guess I should 'value' my anxiety provoking situations and carefully analyse what exactly caused the anxiety and then work on those thoughts since it isn't very clear. 

Also is anyone finding Dr Richards program hard to accept sometimes? I mean it's easy to say try and be more rational, people hating us is simply irrational but how do we say it to ourselves in such a way that it is believable. E.g. if you are really short, how are you able to convince yourself that you are tall compared to other people when its not true? Or are we just meant to convince ourselves a different way like "height doesn't really matter, not many people care about that" sort of thing?


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## Illusio (Jun 25, 2012)

For me. It was good to point out to myself that humanity has always been under a lot of dangers (survival). Likewise we must become better at dealing with the uncertainties of life. This is rational 

About the hight thing, I guess you should say something about a molehill  that is where that one fits in. 

I'm short too. But I'm big in Japan


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