Several years ago Dr. Tamar Chansky, one of the nation's leading clinical experts on children and anxiety disorders, realized that roughly half of the children she sees in her clinical practice exhibit "negative thinking." These children see only those things that are wrong with themselves, the world, and the future. Distinct from the type of thinking Dr. Chansky encountered in children with anxiety and obsessive-compulsive symptoms, children who engage in negative thinking supersize their problems: Nothing ever works for me. There's no point. I give up. This negativity creates emotional hurdles that often hinder children from achieving success and happiness, both now and in the years to come.