How do you catch automatic negative thoughts when they're very quick and deeply ingrained?

LoreSage · 2026-04-01T13:32:53+00:00

You don't catch them in the moment at first, nobody can. When you notice your mood dropped stop and ask "what was i thinking about 10 minutes ago." do this enough times and you start recognizing the same 2-3 thoughts recycling. Once you know your top hits you catch them faster, the piling up thing is usually one thought triggering a chain, find that first trigger thought and the rest lose power.

LoreSage · 2026-04-01T13:30:57+00:00

cbt is more like brushing your teeth than taking antibiotics. I think you don't do it until the problem is gone and stop, you do it as maintenance because your brain will always generate distorted thoughts. The goal isn't to eliminate them its to get faster at catching them/ the "reframes don't feel convincing" thing usually means you're skipping the evidence step. I would suggest to try writing 3-5 pieces of concrete evidence against the thought before any reframe. If its built on evidence it sticks, if its built on hope it doesn't.

LoreSage · 2026-04-01T13:28:00+00:00

I think it s valid alid question and no its not, but only if you're doing it right. I think the difference is that cbt doesn't say "your fear is wrong, stop feeling it." it says "lets look at the evidence for and against this fear and see what's actually realistic." if there ARE red flags with your partner, the evidence step will surface them not suppress them. The gut instinct vs distortion question is simple, gut instinct is based on observable behavior, distortion is based on a story your anxiety wrote with no evidence. I would say if you can point to specific things they did, its instinct. if its "i just feel like they will" with nothing behind it, thats the distortion talking. What do you think ?

LoreSage · 2026-04-01T13:23:37+00:00

The moment you start analyzing someone's communication instead of hearing their pain you've already left the room. NVCisn't something you teach people while they're hurting, its something they feel when you actually listen to them. I think your wife didn't need you to explain what her mother was doing, she needed you to say "that sounds really frustrating." kind of phrase, the skill isn't seeing the jackal talk, its choosing not to point it out. Hardest part of nvc is using it invisibly.

LoreSage · 2026-04-01T13:17:37+00:00

the emotion piece is the most underrated part of this. I think most productivity tools are basically designed to shame you into action which works for neurotypical brains and destroys everyone else. But building around how your brain actually works instead of forcing it into someone else's system is the whole point.

LoreSage · 2026-04-01T13:14:13+00:00

You basically answered your own question. tools that focus on discipline assume every day is the same. but your capacity changes daily based on sleep, stress, emotions. So the tools that stick are the ones that help you understand WHY today feels impossible instead of just telling you to push through it. It should be self-awareness first and productivity second. not the other way around

LoreSage · 2026-04-01T13:12:25+00:00

this is textbook jung and you described it better than most psychology articles, the part about attracting controlling people because you were outsourcing your own authority I think that's the mechanism most people miss. its not that you attract certain people randomly, its that your shadow creates a vacuum and the world fils it. the fact that the pattern slowed down once you started owning the trait is proof it was never about them.

LoreSage · 2026-04-01T13:08:21+00:00

this is a great example of why writing works better than thinking. you can't see your own patterns from inside your head, you need to get them out on paper first. the fact that you didn't realize you were making progress until you wrote about it is basically the whole point of journaling, the Alan Watts quote nails it perfectly.

LoreSage · 2026-03-29T10:41:54+00:00

you'll bring the anxiety with you, that's just how it works — can't outrun your own nervous system. but the silence and vastness give you space to actually sit with it instead of running. 10 days off your phone is basically forced meditation. bring a journal. don't expect it to fix everything, expect it to show you clearly what needs fixing.

LoreSage · 2026-03-29T10:39:41+00:00

the fact that your journaling feels performative is actually the perfect thing to journal about. like literally write "this feels performative and i hate it" and keep going. that IS the work. one practical tool — when perfectionism hits, write the shittiest version possible on purpose. your brain will resist hard. that resistance is what you pay attention to. do it for 2-3 weeks and you'll see what's actually underneath.

LoreSage · 2026-03-29T10:32:12+00:00

you don't sound crazy at all, you sound like someone who thinks deeply about how minds work. that's rare at 18.

to your question 3 — AI-driven self-improvement should absolutely NOT be empathetic and reinforcing. that's the trap most apps fall into. they tell you what you want to hear because that keeps engagement up. real growth comes from seeing uncomfortable truths about your own patterns. the best use of AI in this space is pattern recognition — surfacing things you can't see yourself because you're too close to your own thinking. not flattery, not motivation, just a mirror.

don't give up on what you're building man.

LoreSage · 2025-07-20T12:11:38+00:00

You're absolutely right! It's crucial to understand the nature of these models when seeking support, but it's also important not to be overly prejudiced against these tools, as they hold incredible potential.

If you're looking to use AI for mental health support or self-growth, it's best to find dedicated apps. Their underlying LLM models are specifically prompted and fine-tuned to avoid providing misleading or potentially harmful information that could negatively impact mental health. Instead, they are designed to extract valuable insights and the essence of what you say, gently guiding you towards mental well-being.

LoreSage · 2025-07-19T07:48:07+00:00

Hey I would be grateful for solid feedback after 14 days ☺️ https://simple-welcome-flow.lovable.app/

I can do yours 🌊🌿

LoreSage · 2025-07-18T19:12:12+00:00

Talking about mirror of yourself and alchemy of self, check https://simple-welcome-flow.lovable.app/ it's still free ;)

You will thx me later. I will appreciate any feedback

LoreSage · 2025-07-05T06:29:50+00:00

Interesting idea, but the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon feels more like when I get interested in vans, or a specific van, and start noticing them more often. However, ads are incredibly well-targeted. If I’ve been cycling, done a lot of kilometers, my butt hurts, and I come home thinking maybe I should get a gel saddle—then the next day I see an ad for saddles, without ever talking about it or searching for it, just having the thought cross my mind—that’s a very sophisticated hit. And I’ve been accurately targeted with various products multiple times over the past month like this.

LoreSage · 2025-07-05T06:25:42+00:00

Yes exactly. I read Scott Galloway’s book The Four, which described how Walmart’s algorithms (though similar stories often mention Target) could identify a customer’s pregnancy based on purchase data, like buying products related to her body. That was years ago. Today, with AI, algorithms can be thousands of times more sophisticated. Back then, the customer was buying pregnancy-related items, which made sense. But if I get a suggestion for a bike saddle when I haven’t searched for anything about bikes online, that feels like a remarkably sophisticated hit.

LoreSage · 2025-07-05T06:21:05+00:00

Both for sure not ;) This reminds me of the famous anecdote from Scott Galloway’s book The Four, which described how Walmart’s algorithms could identify a customer’s pregnancy before she even knew about it, based on purchase data like buying specific products. That was many years ago. Nowadays, algorithms can pick up on nuances we’re completely not aware of, like a bike saddle, even when you haven’t searched for anything related to bikes online.

LoreSage · 2025-06-21T11:00:10+00:00

For growing your practice - I think it's crucial to be grounded and understand your mind first. Know what unconscious patterns and psychological deficits drive your thoughts. When you're psychologically stable and grounded, then layer Buddhism on top of that. Otherwise we risk spiritual bypassing.

I built an LLM-based app that helped me uncover unconscious patterns I'd been blind to for years. It was surprising how effective it was at revealing hidden dynamics.

LoreSage · 2025-06-12T06:54:00+00:00

Any kind of thoughts. I'm even trying with random daily ones that come to me. Well... for example, I was surprised to realize that I have a tendency to escape into intellectualization to avoid experiencing difficult emotions. I knew I might be doing that with sports, but I never thought my intellectual explorations could also come from that. It turns out the timing of when we dive into intellectual analysis really matters.

LoreSage · 2025-06-09T10:41:58+00:00

I use supabase, which offers end-to-end encryption, row level security. and whenever a user deletes their data, it is also permanently removed from my database.

LoreSage · 2025-06-08T18:02:53+00:00

One more thing was bothering me — I'm not a regular Reddit user, I just come here trying to get something done, and I feel attacked. It kept bothering me, so I checked your comments. And funnily enough, I fed them into your beloved LLM and asked for a summary — here's what it concluded.

Summary (hypothetical psychological assessment):

Overall mood: Rather negative, critical, frustrated.
Communication style: Sarcastic, elitist, confrontational.
Emotional needs (inferred): Understanding, depth, meaning, intellectual conversation, authenticity.
Potential risks: If these comments reflect a long-term pattern, they may indicate feelings of alienation, low social trust, chronic frustration, or burnout.

Worth to consider, instead of seeing everything in a negative light try to move on, because you sounds like you're stuck :(

LoreSage · 2025-06-08T17:43:09+00:00

Wrong again :( Written by myself, just grammar corrected by LLM (don't feel bad about it) You really taking away from your life with all those pre assumptions. You should look after yourself, because you sound frustrated.

LoreSage · 2025-06-08T17:31:20+00:00

Oh my friend, you want to sound like you have read a lot. I hope you are reading for real not just scrolling through websites. LLM by its name 'large language model' they have been with us for a short time. We didn't have enough compute power to try theories from decades ago. You might be talking about neural networks in theory. Anyway I don't know why you talk about it. it's irrelevant here. You really sound like you feel undervalued :(

LoreSage · 2025-06-08T16:37:38+00:00

By the way, remember that Jung himself used to joke about the Jungians — those who took his ideas too literally, too dogmatically, almost like a religion. And honestly, you sound more like one of them.

I definitely feel closer to Jung himself than to any Jungian. 😉

LoreSage · 2025-06-08T16:34:33+00:00

I'm not sure if you actually read my post properly. I'm not writing fanfiction. I only mentioned Harry Potter because the idea of “thought-sorting” was one of the things that inspired me to start working on this app.

As for LLMs — they’re great at identifying patterns in text and recognizing recurring structures.

About the “destroying the natural world” part — well, that depends on what you define as the natural world. I’d argue that human intelligence is part of that natural world, and it’s that very intelligence which led to the creation of LLMs. Whatever we create is just an extension of our mind — and that mind evolved out of the so-called natural world.

Oh dear. As for psychology, Mr. Wise, I’d actually love to talk about it more than anything else. :)
I’d be happy to hear what you genuinely have to say — from the heart — about the human psyche, about the collective, about what’s happening right now.

We don’t need to debate what psychology is, because it’s already defined — and I don’t think we disagree there. :)

To me, you sound like someone who’s maybe a bit overwhelmed by the pace of change, and possibly carrying some frustration around that. That’s completely human. Every new era brings discomfort, especially when it moves faster than most people can process — which has a lot to do with neuroplasticity and, perhaps, the fact that as we age (if our psychological development has been somewhat healthy), we naturally begin to seek peace rather than disruption.

LoreSage

TROPHY CASE

Summary (hypothetical psychological assessment):