CBT Explanation

I have written a brief explanation on CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. I have found most of them helpful through the years, and use them regularly at the moment to walk to the bus stop and then catching the bus, going to shopping centres and even keeping in touch with people.
When I first started doing it I found it very hard, but perseverance paid of and a lot of the things I do mentally, others I sit down with pen a paper because I find that reading it back makes it so much clearer than it just running through my head.

CBT

Your thoughts create your feelings
I really like the theory about Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) thought I better put pen to paper and explain my take on it and how I use it. I’ve compiled this information from various books, groups, people and friends over the past 15 years. This is not a professional view but methods that have worked for me.
I can remember when I first heard about CBT, I had no idea that our thoughts and feelings were so inter linked. I thought I was just a negative person and didn’t realise that I had control over this, as I believed that it was surrounding events and people that made us feel the way we did. To find out that I had a choice and could control this was opening a huge door for me.
CBT is where we change our thinking from negative/irrational thinking and ideas to positive/rational thinking by writing down the events – our thoughts – and the outcome and choosing how we can change for the better.
CBT has changed things immensely in my personal life, and it works really well for me, but as far as a coping strategy for panic attacks/agoraphobia it has not worked that well at all, but I am happy to read a book if I can at least take one great thing away from it and put it into practice, so even though it hasn’t ‘cured’ me, it has made me a much better person.
The first lesson I took on was: People cannot make me feel anything; it’s my interpretation that creates my feelings and emotions.
This was a heard lesson for me, as I had always blamed others for my reactions and my negative emotions. Eg. If someone criticised me in any way I would blame him or her for making me angry and getting low self-esteem and I would also take on board that I was ‘useless’, ‘bad’, ‘nasty’ etc etc.
The method I used was “CBT” to understand and dispute/change my “Cognitive Distortions”. I used the CBT Table to help me challenge my beliefs and thoughts.

Some helpful questions in challenging beliefs/thoughts:

• What other ways are there of viewing the situation?
• How might someone else view the situation?
• If I were not anxious, how might I view the situation differently?
• Realistically, what is the likelihood of that happening?
• What is the worst thing that could happen to me if this thought was true?
• What good things might occur if this thought was true?
• What is the effect of me thinking this way? Is it helpful for me to think this way?
• What is an alternative, more useful way of thinking about the situation?

Some helpful questions in gathering evidence regarding whether a belief/thought is irrational:

• Where is the evidence (or proof) that this thought/belief is true?
• Is there any evidence that disproves my thought/belief?
• Can I identify this thought/belief as one of the Cognitive Distortions?(See below)
• How do I know that my thoughts/beliefs are true?
• Are there facts that I am ignoring or I’ve overlooked?
• What other explanations could there possibly be (ie alternatives to what thought)
• How realistic are my thoughts, beliefs and expectations?

Cognitive Distortions
All or Nothing Thinking
You see everything in black and white there are no shades of grey
“I am always lazy”
No one can “always” be lazy
Generalization
One failure means failure always
One person doesn’t agree with you and you think everyone thinks the same
No one becomes their failure it is just one event
Mental Filter
You pick out one negative detail and focus on that
You look at only one aspect of your personality
You have to look at the whole picture
Disqualifying the Positive
You always find a reason not to see the positive, there is always a ‘but’ or ‘because’.
You need to pat yourself on the back for every positive in your life
Jumping to Conclusions
You make assumptions due to your negative thinking
Look at all the facts in a rational way
Magnification or Minimization
You exaggerate negatives and failures. Shrink abilities and positive outcomes
You may have failed once, that doesn’t mean you are a failure
Be proud of all achievements they are important
Emotional Reasoning
You think that because you feel it, then it must be true
Your feeling can be irrational and may not reflect things as they really are
Once you change your thoughts then your feelings will change too, do not
judge by your feeling, but by the facts
Should Statements
You berate yourself with shoulds and should nots, which only makes you feel guilty
When you expect shoulds and should nots of others you feel resentment
Practice removing the word should out of your vocabulary it is not a healthy word
Labelling and Mislabelling
Using labels to describe yourself or others, like looser, idiot, do-gooder and perfectionist
See every side of ourselves and others, don’t just focus on a negative or positive side
Look at everyone as a whole person
Personalization
You blame yourself for events out of your control
Nothing is totally one person’s fault; do not take responsibility for other’s choices