I read “Lord of the Rings” many years ago as a teenager and thoroughly enjoyed the escape into a land of fantasy. When I knew Peter Jackson was making the films, I simply couldn’t wait. In fact during a particularly difficult time in my life, knowing these films were due to be released became a simple motivation that helped stop me giving up on life.

A simple and effective way to overcome negative thought patterns are as follows: -

I ask you to consider a statement likely made to you in your past.

” You always ………..” “You never ………” (enter whatever negative piece of feedback you received).
Consider your reaction to the statement.

An example of a statement made to a child or young person.
“What are you doing? Why haven’t you done as I asked? You are just lazy and selfish.”
The young person chooses how to react to this statement.
He/she may choose to accept that accusation in its entirety. This may cause de-motivation and depression. Self talk comes in “I am lazy and selfish. I am a bad person. I am not worthy of love and acceptance.”
There may also be anger. This anger may motivate in a negative fashion.
” You think I’m lazy and selfish? I’ll show you how lazy and selfish I can be. I’m going to shock you by proving how much you have underestimated how lazy and selfish I am!”
The is a kind of rejection of the accusation made because the person didn’t believe the “lazy, selfish” label put on them, but felt unable to counter this, so chose to become the label, and some!
This is likely what causes rebellion in teenagers. The person loses a sense of “self” and becomes something they are not. Self esteem plummets.

Referring back to The Lord of the Rings, we can see this in action. Smeagal finds the ring and chooses to believe the lies it tells him. He becomes who he is not, Gollum. Gollum is consumed with selfishness and carries the burden of the ring. It affects him so badly that even when he loses it, he is unable to find his true self. The ring has enormous power. The greater the power of it’s opposite, the more powerful it will become if it is accepted. Gandalf suspected this when he went to pick up the ring that Bilbo dropped.

From another scene in the film (or book). Smeagal/Gollum is haunted by his negative self talk.
“Smeagal. I told you he was tricksy.”
Smeagal had begun to re-discover himself, but fell foul of his negative self talk, Gollum.

A way of approaching this problem is by investigating what is really going on when we receive what we perceive to be negative feedback.