Automatic Negative Thoughts Worksheet: Catch the Thoughts That Trigger Your Feelings
A simple log for catching automatic negative thoughts (ANTs) in the moment: the situation, the thought that fired, and the feeling it triggered.
Reviewed by Michael Callans, MSW 
About this tool
Automatic negative thoughts, sometimes shortened to ANTs, are the quick, involuntary, often negative thoughts that flash through the mind dozens of times a day. They arrive so fast and feel so obvious that we rarely question them. We just experience the feeling they produce. A thought like "I'm going to mess this up" can pass in a fraction of a second yet leave behind a wave of anxiety.
The first and most important skill in CBT is simply learning to catch these thoughts. You cannot examine or change a thought you never noticed. This worksheet trains that noticing by asking you to log three things each time a feeling spikes: the situation you were in, the automatic thought that ran through your mind, and the emotion it triggered. With practice, the thoughts that once slipped by become visible.
ANTs tend to come in recognizable flavors, the cognitive distortions: catastrophizing, mind-reading, all-or-nothing thinking, and so on. You do not need to label them to benefit from catching them, but noticing the same patterns appearing again and again is often the moment people realize their feelings are being driven by predictable mental habits rather than plain facts.
Catching the thought is step one. Once you can reliably spot your ANTs, the natural next move is to test them against the evidence and find a more balanced view, which is what a thought record is built for.
This kind of thought monitoring comes directly from Aaron Beck's cognitive model of emotional disorders, which holds that automatic thoughts shape how we feel as much as the events themselves do (Beck, 1976). David Burns later popularized simple thought logging as an accessible entry point into cognitive therapy for a general audience (Burns, 1999). Both agree on the same first move: notice the thought before trying to change it.
After a few entries, look across your log for repeats: the same thought showing up in different situations, or the same feeling following a certain kind of thought. Those repeats point to the beliefs doing the most work in your day-to-day mood. If your automatic thoughts are constant, especially harsh, or connected to feelings that are not easing with practice, that is worth bringing to a licensed therapist. Our therapist directory can help you find one who works with CBT.
References
- Beck AT. Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders. International Universities Press; 1976.
- Burns DD. Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy. Rev ed. Avon Books; 1999.
Cite this source
Psychology.com. (2026, September 15). Automatic Negative Thoughts Worksheet. Psychology.com. https://psychology.com/tools/automatic-thoughts
Automatic Negative Thoughts Worksheet FAQ
What are automatic negative thoughts?
They are the quick, involuntary, often negative thoughts that flash through your mind throughout the day. They feel automatic and obvious, and they drive a lot of our emotional reactions before we even notice them.
How do I catch automatic thoughts?
Notice when a feeling suddenly spikes, then ask what just went through your mind. Logging the situation, the thought, and the feeling each time, as close to the moment as possible, trains you to catch them faster.
What's the difference between this and a thought record?
This worksheet focuses only on catching and naming the thought, which is the first CBT skill. A thought record adds the next steps: weighing the evidence and forming a balanced alternative.
Is my information saved?
No. Everything stays in your browser and is never uploaded or stored. The PDF is generated on your own device.
What are examples of automatic negative thoughts?
Common examples include "I'm going to mess this up," "They think I'm incompetent," "This will never get better," and "I should have known." They tend to be short, absolute, and arrive as fact rather than opinion, which is part of why they are easy to believe and hard to notice in the moment.
How do I stop automatic negative thoughts once I catch them?
Catching the thought is the first skill, and it already loosens its grip a little. To go further, test the thought against the evidence: what supports it, what contradicts it, and what a fair-minded friend would say. A thought record walks through those questions step by step once you are ready to move past just naming the thought.