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Mind-Reading and Projecting in Social Anxiety

Mind-reading and projecting are automatic negative thoughts that increase social anxiety. Get tips for stopping mind-reading and projecting. Read this.

Social anxiety rarely works alone. Mind-reading and projecting, two negative thoughts that manipulate your mind, contribute to social anxiety, feeding it and super-sizing it. Social anxiety can be exhausting because of the chatter of racing thoughts going on inside the head. Someone with social anxiety takes in what's going on around him while simultaneously listening to harsh internal dialogue berating him and telling him he's worthless and that everyone else thinks so, too. Social anxiety can be a monster, and mind-reading and projecting are among its minions.

Mind-Reading and Projecting: Automatic Negative Thoughts

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is a therapeutic approach to helping people transcend mental health challenges, including anxiety disorders--social anxiety among them. CBT helps people notice and change automatic negative thoughts, those self-defeating thoughts that pop into our minds automatically, without us consciously putting them there. They play repeatedly and relentlessly in our heads, and we end up believing that they're true. They're racing thoughts that increase anxiety.

Social anxiety wants people to feel worthless, to feel judged, to feel unable to ever be good enough. To accomplish its mission, it uses automatic negative thoughts to sabotage our confidence and heighten our anxiety in various social situations. There are multiple automatic negative thoughts. Two of those thoughts in social anxiety are mind-reading and projecting.

Mind-Reading and Social Anxiety

Mind-reading is an automatic negative thought that is very common in social anxiety. Anxiety pretends it has the power to read other people's thoughts. In the case of social anxiety, we automatically conclude that people are judging us negatively. It can strike anywhere, at any time, and it typically happens so frequently that we don't even realize it or question it.

Mind-reading and projecting are automatic negative thoughts that increase social anxiety. Get tips for stopping mind-reading and projecting. Read this.Perhaps you've walked down a hallway and passed by someone going the other way who doesn't seem to notice you but, instead, passes by without so much as a hello. If you have social anxiety, you might automatically assume that she is angry with you, dislikes you, hates working with you, hates going to class with you, or something similar. You know she's thinking terrible things about you, and you think of all of the things you did wrong to make this person hate you. That's mind-reading, and it makes social anxiety grow bigger than it already is.

Projecting and Social Anxiety

Projecting involves listening to your own thoughts and, like a movie theater projector, transferring them onto someone else. Social anxiety takes a toll on self-esteem. It typically makes people believe that they're worthless, flawed, and incapable of doing things right. This skewed perception clouds how we think about ourselves and how we see others.

When we automatically project, we take our own thoughts of self-doubt (and sometimes self-hatred) and assume that others are thinking those very same things. Projecting and mind-reading are similar in nature and, thus, collaborate as social anxiety's power-increasing minions.

Stop Mind-Reading and Projecting

Mind-reading and projecting are negative thought patters that occur automatically and fuel social anxiety. That does not, however, mean that we're doomed to be a prisoner of our own thoughts. Here are some tips to stop mind-reading and projecting and thus decrease social anxiety.

  • Catch yourself in the act. When you feel judged, embarrassed, and anxious, pay attention to what you're thinking. Notice if you're mind-reading or projecting. This is all you have to do at first because you're increasing awareness of the contents of your racing thoughts.
  • Test the reality of your thoughts. Once you're able to recognize when you're mind-reading and projecting, you can begin to question these thoughts. How realistic are they? Catching them and, later, testing them begins to reduce their power.
  • Look for other possibilities. That person who passed you in the hallway without saying anything, could she have been preoccupied, lost in thought about something else?
  • Suspend judgment. That woman who passed by could have been lost in thought. She might have been sick or anxious about something. There are many different possibilities, and because mind-reading is actually impossible, there's no way to know what she was thinking. That means she might not have been looking down on you at all. Just be in the moment without judgment.

By following these steps and challenging your negative thoughts, you can stop accepting them. Mind-reading and projecting will no longer be social anxiety's minions, and your social anxiety will be drastically reduced.

You can also connect with Tanya J. Peterson on her website, Google+, Facebook, Twitter,Linkedin and Pinterest.

APA Reference
Peterson, T. (2015, December 10). Mind-Reading and Projecting in Social Anxiety, HealthyPlace. Retrieved on 2024, March 19 from https://www.healthyplace.com/blogs/anxiety-schmanxiety/2015/12/social-anxietys-minions-mind-reading-and-projecting



Author: Tanya J. Peterson, MS, NCC, DAIS

Tanya J. Peterson is the author of numerous anxiety self-help books, including The Morning Magic 5-Minute Journal, The Mindful Path Through Anxiety, 101 Ways to Help Stop Anxiety, The 5-Minute Anxiety Relief Journal, The Mindfulness Journal for Anxiety, The Mindfulness Workbook for Anxiety, and Break Free: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in 3 steps. She has also written five critically acclaimed, award-winning novels about life with mental health challenges. She delivers workshops for all ages and provides online and in-person mental health education for youth. She has shared information about creating a quality life on podcasts, summits, print and online interviews and articles, and at speaking events. Tanya is a Diplomate of the American Institution of Stress helping to educate others about stress and provide useful tools for handling it well in order to live a healthy and vibrant life. Find her on her website, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

Tim
February, 17 2023 at 5:26 am

Feels nice knowing I’m not the only one with this. Feels lonely when no one’s listening. Feels more lonely when everyone is but no one’s helping.

Tiff
July, 27 2022 at 9:06 am

Brings to mind something a young doctor once said to me that really resonated...
"What anybody else thinks about you is none of your business."

Brad
November, 21 2021 at 3:55 pm

I have something on me that is putting thoughts in my mind and reading my memory and can control my central nervous system heart,lungs, ECT please help me please my I think.

Chris
November, 10 2022 at 11:50 am

Brad im having the same issue, so.ething has been llaced inside of me that is allowing others to read my thoughts and controll parts of my body as well. But also some positive aspects from what ever this device may be. But very disturbing. I know what you going through people been messing with me for 3 orr 4 years reuined my life i lost everything because they did it to my spouce and i....unknowingly..was quit a shcok but they used it as a tool to mess with our lives rather then help us in anyway...u fortunatly some people out there are monsters and have thier own selfish desires and thrive on negativity and destroying what they cant possibly ever have.

Daniel
March, 9 2018 at 9:55 am

I believed that people were hearing what I was saying for 2 or so years even though I knew it was ridiculous I just kind of went along and yesterday out of the blue I fought myself and realized it was ridiculous and my mind started knowing it then I started feeling depressed and lonely because, I felt no one was listening to me anymore and I know thta i have depression anxiety and ocd any suggestions as to what’s wrong

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

March, 9 2018 at 4:36 pm

Hi Daniel,
It sounds like you are dealing with a lot. Given that you found this article and left a comment, it also sounds like you're not giving into these things. That takes strength.
Trying to determine what you're experiencing (I wouldn't call it something "wrong" with you -- just something very much unwanted that is disrupting your life) in this setting could be harmful. It seems that the depression, anxiety, OCD, and loneliness are all working together to interfere in your life. Have you ever worked with a therapist? Seeking professional help can be very helpful in dealing with all of these things. Working with someone in person would be ideal, but if that isn't possible, there are good therapy services online now. Two of the better ones are talkspace.com and betterhelp.com. With a therapist, you can figure out what's going on and develop strategies to overcome these things.

kholo
September, 27 2017 at 7:56 am

But then what should one do when your projections are hardly wrong? and you hate the fact that they are mostly right?

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

September, 28 2017 at 4:32 am

Hi kholo,
Unfortunately, sometimes the projections are right. Of course, never assume that they're right. There is always a big possibility that they're wrong. But when they are right, it opens the opportunity for you to take action. You have choices. You can use them as feedback for self-growth and make some adjustments to change the things you don't like. Or you can make changes in the opposite direction. You can change who you associate with. Change is always uncomfortable, but it's rewarding when there's something that you really hate.

Caroline
September, 8 2016 at 9:36 pm

I feel the same way sometimes I feel I can read minds negative thought comes to me and I can't can't ignore and I will come out

Leonard Lake
August, 20 2016 at 9:27 pm

I can strongly relate to the majority of points illustrated here, and I think that the idea of interpersonal projection being connected to perceived mind reading is definitely valid to some extent...
However, what if these intrusive thoughts aren't always negative?
Any insight that you might have would be most appreciated.

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

August, 21 2016 at 11:10 am

Hi Leonard,
Thank you for sharing this very valid point. Intrusive thoughts like these aren't always negative. They can be of any nature. Sometimes, noticing them and acknowledging them with a phrase such as "I'm having the thought that..." is helpful in distancing yourself from the thought (in acceptance and commitment therapy, this is known as defusion -- separating, de-fusing from thoughts. It helps us accept these thoughts as merely thoughts. They don't define us, control us, or impose our subjective beliefs on the world around us. Then you can shift to your actions. What is important to you? What do you want to do? The thoughts might linger for a while, but they're less bothersome.

Mind Reader
March, 16 2016 at 2:55 am

Creative and innovative information
in this Mind Reader
Thank you for sharing this
Information.

John
December, 11 2015 at 7:06 am

You do need to stop all those negative thoughts before they get a hold of you. Negativity just drains a person. This is one area i must really work on. Nice advice list.

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

Kim
February, 12 2023 at 8:45 am

Please what is this device because i DEFINITELY am having it done to me

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