Cognitive Behaviour Therapy - Avy Joseph

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your emotions but what you tell yourself or what you infer about it now that provokes your feeling.

       It's easy to assume that A causes C but that would not be accurate.

An illustration shows A: Past, Present, Future Real or Imaginary External or Internal. B: C: Feelings Thoughts (Inferences) Action Tendency Behaviour Symptoms.

      When a trigger happens at ‘A’, you feel, behave, think and experience symptoms. Because this happens quickly, you think ‘A’ causes ‘C’ (the consequences). So you may use expressions like ‘he made me feel angry’, or ‘my job makes me depressed’. It is as if we are not responsible for our own emotions.

      Remember the 100 and 1000 people example earlier?

An illustration shows A: Past, Present, Future Real or Imaginary External or Internal. B: Belief. C: Feelings Thoughts (Inferences) Action Tendency Behaviour Symptoms.

       Beliefs

      According to the ABC model we can have two types of beliefs – rational and irrational or healthy and unhealthy.

      1 Healthy beliefs:Are flexibleAre based on the things that you want, like, desire and preferTend to make sense – they are logical and consistent with realityMeans accepting that sometimes you may not get what you wantDetach human worth from success or failureLead to emotional well‐being and set you up for goal achievement.

      2 Unhealthy beliefs:Are unrealisticCan be self‐criticalAre not based on acceptance or acknowledgement of realityDo not acknowledge or accept other possibilities (even though reality shows that other possibilities exist)Cause a mismatch between internal and external realitiesLead to emotional disturbance and set you up for failure and goal sabotage.

      Compare the following statements:

      ‘I would like it to be nice and sunny every day when I wake up but I accept there is a chance that it might not be.’

      ‘The day MUST be nice and sunny when I wake up’

      The second example is unhealthy and irrational because it is unrealistic. Unhealthy beliefs do not make logical sense. What makes sense is to have a more healthy belief, such as ‘I would like the day to be nice and sunny when I wake up, but it doesn't mean that it HAS to be.’

       Healthy negative emotions and self‐helping behaviours

      It is easy to understand that if you hold a healthy belief about yourself or about certain things in your life, this would increase your chances of success. However, success is never guaranteed, so if you don't succeed you might feel upset and sad. Having healthy beliefs means that, while you might feel sad or upset if you failed you would lick your wounds, dust yourself off and focus back on your goal. Instead of feeling guilty you might feel regret and look at ways of improving. Instead of feeling unhealthy anger or rage, you might feel annoyed. You would behave assertively without lashing out in a destructive way or giving up. You would believe that you are not a failure as a human being but rather that you are a fallible human being who is able to learn and improve.

       Unhealthy negative emotions and self‐destructive behaviours

      It is not difficult to understand that if you have unhealthy beliefs about yourself and about certain things in your life, your feelings and behaviours are not going to be healthy.

      According to the ABC model, unhealthy beliefs provoke unhealthy negative emotions and self‐damaging or destructive behaviours. Depression, anxiety, guilt and rage are examples of unhealthy negative emotions.

       ANXIETY VERSUS CONCERN

Unhealthy Negative Emotion What the belief is about Healthy Negative Emotion
Anxiety A threat or danger Concern
How you think How you think
You exaggerate the overall effect of the threat. You keep the effect of the danger in perspective.
You think that you won't be able to deal with the danger. You have a balanced view about your ability to deal with the threat.
You see the glass as half empty. You see the whole glass and focus on the full part.
Your thoughts are not constructive. Your thoughts are solution‐focused and constructive.
What you do or what you feel like doing What you do or what you feel like doing
Run away physically. Face the threat.
Run away mentally. Deal with the potential danger.
Do superstitious things to get rid of the threat.
Medicate and numb your feelings, e.g. with alcohol.
Seek assurances from others.

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Unhealthy Negative Emotion What the belief is about Healthy Negative Emotion
Depression Loss or failure Sadness
How you think How you think
You only focus on negatives since the loss or failure. You think of both the negatives and positives of the loss or failure.
You think of all the other past losses and failures.