Cognitive Behaviour Therapy - Avy Joseph

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thoughts.

       Common sense

      In CBT we suggest taking a logical and common‐sense approach to thinking.

      Logic or common sense is about the purity of our reasoning skills, whether a conclusion correctly follows a premise or assumption.

      For example, which one of these two statements makes sense?

      A. Some men shave their heads … therefore anyone with a shaved head is a man.

      B. Some men shave their heads … but it doesn't mean everyone with a shaved head is a man.

      Clearly statement B makes sense. In statement A, the fact that some men shave their heads does not connect logically to the assumption that anyone with a shaved head is a man. Some women, children and teenagers also have shaved heads.

      Logical thinking is useful because we all have the ability to think and use common sense. In CBT, using your common sense well can lead you to form better conclusions about yourself.

      Some people think like this about certain goals:

I failed at achieving my goal therefore, I am a total failure as a person

      Others think like this:

I failed at achieving my goal but that doesn't mean I am a total failure. I am fallible but worthwhile nevertheless. I will learn from my failure and improve.

      Which of the above two statements makes sense?

       Helpfulness

      Finally, in CBT we look at how helpful your thoughts are to you and in the pursuit of your goals. Your thoughts are responsible for how you feel about yourself and your abilities, so it is more helpful for you to have constructive and goal‐oriented thoughts than not.

      Exercise

      Reflect on some thoughts you often have about yourself and your abilities. See if they are helpful to you. For example, you might think ‘I'm not very good at talking in front of people’.

      How can you make your thoughts more realistic, logical and helpful? For example, ‘I could improve by facing my fears slowly and gradually’.

      In CBT we draw a distinction between different types of thoughts. Not all of our thoughts are involved with our feelings and behaviours. The thoughts that are involved in our feelings tend to have some sort of an assumption or judgement about ourselves, others or the world.

      There are two particular types of thought that are involved in our emotions or feelings.

       1. Inferences

      Inferences are assumptions you make about the things that matter to you, which can be about yourself, others or about the world. For example, if your boss contradicted you during a meeting that was important to you, you might think, ‘he is undermining me’. Then you would be making an inference. This means that in that moment you have gone beyond the facts and made an assumption about what happened because it was significant to you. In this example you would have an emotional response: you may feel annoyed, concerned, anxious, angry or some other negative emotion.

      The issue is whether your boss was undermining you or simply expressing a different opinion. In order to find out you would need to gather more information and evidence. Some of our inferences are accurate and some are not. In this example your inference has not been tested in reality.

      If you had thought ‘he has a different opinion, he is not undermining me’ then your emotional response would be different.

      1 I saw a woman getting on a bus.

      2 My workmates are ignoring me.

      3 I'm a failure.

      Thoughts 2 and 3 will lead to an emotional reaction. The second thought is an inference. It may or may not be true. Your colleagues have been ignoring you − they may just have been very busy with work. You need more information to assess the accuracy of conclusion. But if you conclude that you were being ignored, then you would have an emotional reaction.

      The third thought also leads to an emotional response but it is more profound in its conclusion. ‘I'm a failure’ is an evaluative thought.

       2. Evaluations or beliefs

      Inferences influence our emotions but do not fully provoke them. Evaluations, on the other hand, are thoughts that are fully involved in provoking emotions and feelings. When you have an evaluative thought you are making a judgement about yourself, about others, or about the world. For simplicity let's call evaluative thoughts ‘beliefs’. These are fundamental in provoking either constructive feelings and helpful behaviours or destructive feelings and sabotaging behaviours.

      Putting these principles and philosophies into a theoretical model helps you to see more easily how feelings, different thoughts, behaviours and events all interact with one another.

      The easiest is the ‘ABC’ model of emotional response.

       A = Activating Event (or trigger)

       B = Belief

       C = Consequences

      The ‘A’ can be:

      1 Real or imaginaryThe trigger can be an actual event, such as losing someone or something important to you, or an imaginary one. It could also be an inference – a hunch – like imagining that someone is going to reject you before any rejection has taken place.

      2 External or internalExternal events are things that happen outside of your body, for example: someone's death, being rejected, failing at something or experiencing an accident.Internal events are triggers that happen inside your body, for example: your thoughts, images, emotions, fantasies, memories and bodily sensations.

      3 About the past, present or futureThe event could be something that has happened in the past, something that is happening now or something that could happen in the future.

      Key points to remember:

       ‘A’ can be an internal past event that was real. For example, losing someone you loved. All past events are internal because they exist in our memories.

       ‘A’ can be real, future and external. For example, making a speech at your friend's wedding next week.

       It

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