Negative thoughts influence your feelings and actions and can drive your addiction. Automatic negative thoughts are those deeply-held, and often repeated, pessimistic thoughts that lead to intense emotions and wayward actions. It is necessary to reflect on which thoughts are distorted and which are accurate. Negative thoughts that accompany drug and alcohol use are often irrational and exaggerated and they fuel the addiction, making it difficult to change. Once you can recognize these thoughts for what they are, you can start analyzing them and change your thinking. In this lesson, examine the thoughts and beliefs that influence your feelings and actions. Learn to recognize, refute, and replace negative thoughts with positive substitutions; repeating the process as often as necessary. This will help you strengthen your commitment to staying emotionally healthy.
