The World is out to get me

I was recently talking to a friend of mine that suffers from a variety of mental health problems who is going through a rough time due to long term illness and her work life. A couple of times she has come out with a completely negative view on something that isn’t intended in a negative way. An example of this was receiving a letter from work that outlined how the company wanted to support her in the next steps and provide options for how to proceed that she referred to as a “warning” letter.

While it is easy to look at it from an outside view, I know that I have been guilty of the same thing many times. I can easily find myself reading an email or a text, or even in a conversation, jumping straight to a negative view point that is either exaggerated, taken out of context or completely made up in my head. It’s easy to identify these times when you look back, but much more difficult to identify at the time.

What I find helps me the most with this is a couple of simple steps, the first is a second opinion. Ask friends, colleagues or even family and try not to tell them what you think, so you can get an honest view of how they interpret the situation in question. The second is the same as a lot of things I have found with mental health and is to take that all important step back. Give yourself some time to think and try to look at from another angle. Is it actually negative or are you just reading too much into it?