With all that said, sometimes negative thoughts are just good intuition. Sometimes DMing your ex to see if he'll give you his Adderall prescription really is a bad idea. If you’re not sure if your thinking is realistic, it can help to write down your expectations before you put yourself in a situation that you think could go poorly, Woodruff says. Then go do the thing you’re worried about doing, and see if reality lived up to be the catastrophic nightmare you thought it would be. This will help you gauge whether your expectations are distorted.