Kill the ANTs Thought Inquiry
Question automatic negative thoughts before they control your response
- Difficulty
- Moderate
- Time to result
- ~weeks to results
- Steps
- 6
- Confidence
- 99%
Amen calls automatic negative thoughts ANTs and proposes a written inquiry whenever a person feels sad, angry, nervous, or out of control. First, capture the thought and classify its pattern, such as fortune-telling, mind-reading, blame, guilt, comparison, or all-or-nothing language. Then test whether it is true and whether it can be known with complete certainty. Compare how believing the thought affects feelings, behavior, and outcomes with how life might look without it. Finally, reverse the statement and ask whether the opposite is also true. The mechanism is not forced optimism; it is creating distance from an untested interpretation and choosing a response after examining its consequences. Amen says he refined the questioning process from Byron Katie's work.
Origin
Amen says he refined a questioning process from Byron Katie and uses it with patients to challenge automatic negative thoughts; extracted from The Diary of a CEO.
Core principles
- 01A thought is not automatically true because it appears
- 02Writing a thought down makes it easier to examine
- 03Beliefs influence feelings, actions, and outcomes
- 04Testing the opposite can expose a distorted prediction
How to run it
- 1
Capture the thought
When distress rises, write the exact thought down rather than arguing with a vague feeling. Keep the wording close to what appeared in your mind.
Pro tip Look for absolute words such as always, never, everyone, and every time.
Watch out Do not use self-inquiry to delay urgent professional help when safety is at risk.
- 2
Name the ANTs pattern
Classify the thought as fortune-telling, mind-reading, blame, guilt, negative comparison, all-or-nothing thinking, or another recurring distortion Amen names. Classification helps reveal that the thought is a pattern rather than a fact.
Pro tip A thought can contain more than one pattern.
- 3
Test its truth
Ask whether the thought is true, then whether it is absolutely true with complete certainty. If the first answer is no, the second is necessarily no as well.
Pro tip Answer from available evidence, not from the intensity of the feeling.
- 4
Trace the consequences
Identify how believing the thought makes you feel, how it makes you act, and the outcome it tends to produce. Make each consequence concrete.
Pro tip Separate emotion, behavior, and outcome rather than collapsing them into one answer.
- 5
Imagine its absence
Ask how you would feel, act, and fare if the thought were unavailable. This contrast reveals what the belief may be costing you.
Pro tip Describe the next observable behavior, not an idealized personality change.
- 6
Test the turnaround
Reverse the thought and ask whether the opposite is also true. Spend time with the most evidence-based alternative rather than automatically returning to the original prediction.
Pro tip Include a neutral alternative when a positive reversal feels implausible.
Watch out The aim is accurate thinking, not denying real risks or difficult circumstances.
In the wild
Bartlett describes a background expectation that opening an email will bring bad news. Amen identifies fortune-telling and all-or-nothing thinking, then walks him through truth, consequences, life without the thought, and the alternatives that the message may be good or innocuous. Bartlett says releasing the prediction would make him freer, happier, and more present.
→ A vague background threat becomes a specific prediction that can be tested rather than obeyed.
Common mistakes
Treating intensity as evidence
A thought can feel urgent without being true or certain; the inquiry asks for evidence rather than emotional force.
Replacing negativity with fantasy
Amen explicitly distinguishes positivity training from irrational positivity, so the turnaround still needs to be plausible.
Skipping the behavioral consequence
The process examines not only feelings but also actions and outcomes created by believing the thought.
Is it for you?
Best for
It is best for people who can notice recurring predictions, comparisons, blame, guilt, or all-or-nothing thinking.
Not ideal for
It is not a replacement for professional care during a mental-health crisis, severe depression, psychosis, or persistent disabling anxiety.
From the transcript
“whenever you feel sad or mad or nervous or out of control what I want you to do is just write it down.”
“The first question is is it true? The second question is it absolutely true with 100% certainty”
“Just take the thought and turn it to the opposite. And then ask yourself is that true?”
From the episode
The ADHD Doctor: “I’ve Scanned 250,000 Brains” You (Steven Bartlett) Have ADHD! & Coffee Is Damaging Your Brain!!! Dr Daniel Amen