22 Sep How to Crush Your Inner Critic and Gain Control Over Your Anxiety
via Thrive Global by Dr Elizabeth Lombardo
“There is no way you can do that.”
“You totally screwed that up.”
“What if something bad happens?!”
That inner voice is your inner critic, and we all have one. As a psychologist who works with CEOs, celebrities, and sports figures, as well as “regular” people, I can tell you that if you have a pulse — and a conscience — you have an inner critic. Sure, it may be louder at times than others, but we all have one.
Your inner critic is that little voice inside of you that loves to point out all the places you messed up, or could mess up. It tells you that you can’t, you shouldn’t, you better not. It alerts you of what bad things could happen, as if they are inevitable.
And it is our inner critic that is contributing to the skyrocketing rates of anxiety. Over 40 million Americans have a diagnosable anxiety disorder with almost 40 percent of people reporting feeling more anxious than they did last year. And such psychological upheaval is particularly impacting teens, with 70 percent reporting that anxiety and depression are “a major problem” among their peers.
These staggering numbers are extremely concerning. The good news, though, is that anxiety is treatable.
How the inner critic affects anxiety
Anxiety is a result, not of external events, so much as our interpretation of those events.
Our inner critic often thinks in erroneous or distorted ways. In psychology, we call these “cognitive distortions,” or skewed ways of viewing the world. Here are a few examples:
- Negative filtering: You focus on what is wrong, as opposed to what’s going well. As a result, you see only the negative, which makes you feel more anxious. And ironically, that causes you to see more negative, creating a vicious cycle.
- Mind reading: You assume you know what others are thinking about you without any real evidence (and it’s not positive).
- Fortune telling: You predict the future negatively, and then act as though your fears are imminent.
- All-or-nothing: You view people and events in terms of all-or-nothing. One mistake by you, for example, is viewed as a demonstration that you are an epic failure.
Any of those sound familiar? I thought so.
Try a new success formula
After working with clients for over two decades and speaking on stages around the globe, helping people crush their inner critic, I have discovered an antidote to this mean voice inside your head…
… keep reading the full & original article HERE