Your threat system is not a neutral observer. It listens out for danger, so it tends to find some, and your first read of a situation leans towards the worst version of it.

What the research says

In a randomised experiment with 62 students, training people to use planned self-talk protected their selective attention after their self-control had been depleted. It is a small study using attention tasks rather than provocation, so it supports only the general point that attention can be steered deliberately instead of going wherever it is pulled.

Strength of evidence: one line of research. A single study, or a theoretical account.