A healthy person doesn’t have a bias in the way they think; they don’t have a preconceived notion about the way their life is going to be or is supposed to be.  Life comes to them one moment at a time, one day at a time, and they like it that way.  All of their interactions with the world are neutral until they decide what a particular event means to them.

Negative thinkers have a different modus operandi.  They have a negative bias in their thinking, and they automatically attach a negative meaning to the neutral events of life.  A negative bias is extremely hazardous.  It’s a cup of poison that points out the futility of your dreams.  It reveals the flaws in your relationships and steals your joy.

A negative bias is wrong.  It misinterprets reality and weaves a destructive and twisted meaning into the fabric of life.  Paranoia is an extreme form of negative bias in which you feel people are against you, talking about you, picking on you, and not giving you a fair chance.  Even your so-called friends are taking advantage of you. 

Unbridled negative bias can run rampant though all areas of your life.  When negative thinking is in control, you select negative friends who also have a negative bias.  Their twisted thinking agrees with your twisted view of how screwed up life is.  If your friends agree with you, how could you both be wrong?  Teenagers frequently have a massively negative bias in the way they think, and the sound and fury of their negative bias makes it extremely unpleasant to be around them.

A negative bias is deceptive and that’s one reason why it’s so dangerous.  You can’t smell your own stinking thinking.  It all seems so real, when in fact, it’s happening only in your mind and not in the real world.  Your distorted thought processes have automatically attached a negative meaning to every event in your life. 

Negative biases become stumbling blocks you can’t see, and if you can’t see them, you have no way to correct them.  Frequently, the only way to detect and eliminate them is with outside help.  Someone else has to point them out and show you how to escape.

Excerpt from :

Zero Tolerance To Negative Thinking : Good-by Depression - Hello Positive Mind

David J Abbott M.D.