Kill the ANTs (Automatic Negative Thoughts)
You don't have to believe every stupid thing you think.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 4
- Confidence
- 90%
ANTs are Automatic Negative Thoughts that invade the mind and, left unchecked, ruin mood, relationships and performance. Amen argues that no one is ever taught not to believe every stupid thing they think, so people obey their worst thoughts. The technique is to notice negative emotion, write down the underlying thought, and interrogate whether it is true. He pairs it with an exercise of writing down your hundred worst thoughts and asking five questions of each, which drains the negativity over repetition. The metaphor makes an abstract skill vivid and teachable, even to children.
Origin
Amen coined the term about 30 years ago after a brutal day with four suicidal patients, coming home to find his kitchen infested with ants and realizing his patients' minds were similarly infested with automatic negative thoughts.
Core principles
- 01Automatic negative thoughts arrive uninvited and can ruin your mood and decisions.
- 02A thought being present does not make it true.
- 03You can talk back to your own mind the way you'd talk back to anyone else.
- 04Writing thoughts down and questioning them drains their power.
How to run it
- 1
Catch the negative emotion
Whenever you feel sad, mad, nervous or out of control, treat it as a signal that an ANT is present.
- 2
Write the thought down
Capture the specific thought running through your mind at that moment so it becomes visible and examinable.
Pro tip For a deeper pass, list a hundred of your worst thoughts and work through them.
- 3
Ask whether it's true
Question the thought directly, asking whether it is actually true, rather than accepting it automatically.
Pro tip Amen uses five questions per thought in his book to fully dismantle it.
- 4
Talk back to it
Respond to the thought the way a defiant teenager talks back to a parent, refusing to accept a lie about yourself.
In the wild
Amen points to tennis star Naomi Osaka publicly saying 'I am never good enough,' and to patients like Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus who had the same thoughts, arguing none of them had ever been taught to manage their minds.
→ It illustrates that even elite performers suffer from unchallenged ANTs, and that the skill is learnable.
Common mistakes
Believing every thought
Assuming a thought is true simply because you had it lets false, harmful narratives govern your feelings and behavior.
Never writing thoughts down
Leaving negative thoughts vague and unexamined keeps them powerful; putting them on paper is what makes them challengeable.
Is it for you?
Best for
Anyone battling anxiety, self-criticism or rumination who was never taught to manage their mind.
Not ideal for
Severe clinical conditions that require professional treatment beyond self-directed thought work.
From the transcript
“you don't have to believe every stupid thing you think”
“whenever you feel sad or mad or nervous or out of control write down what you're thinking and then ask yourself whether or not it's…”
From the episode
Dr. Daniel Amen: Brain Boosting Habits
Dr. Daniel Amen