COGNITIVE THERAPY Reference: Burns, David (1980). Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy.

New York: Avon Books

PRINCIPLES OF COGNITIVE THERAPY 1. All moods are created by your cognitions, or thoughts. A cognition refers to the way you look at things your perceptions, mental attitudes, and beliefs. It includes the way you interpret things what you say about something or someone to yourself. You feel the way you do right now because of the thoughts you are thinking at this moment.

2. When feeling depressed, your thoughts are dominated by a pervasive negativity. You perceive not only yourself but the entire world in dark, gloomy terms. What is even worse youll come to believe things really are as bad as you imagine them to be. The bleak vision creates a sense of hopelessness. The feeling is absolutely illogical, but it seems so real that you have convinced yourself that your inadequacy will go on forever. 3. As documented through research, the negative thoughts which cause your emotional turmoil nearly always contain gross distortions. Although these thoughts appear valid, they are irrational or just plain wrong, and that twisted thinking is a major cause of your suffering.

DEFINITIONS OF COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS 1. ALL OR NOTHING THINKING - you see things in black-and-white categories. If your performance falls short of perfection, you see yourself as a total failure.

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OVERGENERALIZATION you see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat. MENTAL FILTER you pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of all reality have become darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors the entire beaker of water.

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DISQUALIFYING THE POSITIVE you reject positive experiences by insisting that they dont count for some reason or other. In this way you can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday experiences.

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JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS you make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion.

a. Mind reading - you arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you, or you dont bother to check this out. b. The Fortune Teller Error you anticipate that things will turn out badly, and you feel convinced that your prediction is an already established fact.

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MAGNIFICATION (CATASTROPHIZING) OR MINIMIZATION you exaggerate the importance of things (such as your or someone elses achievement), or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny (your own desirable qualities or the other fellows imperfections). This is also called the binocular trick.

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EMOTIONAL REASONING - you assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: I feel it, therefore it must be true.

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SHOULD STATEMENTS you try to motivate yourself with should and should nots, as if you have to be whipped and punished before you could be expected to do anything. Musts and oughts are also offenders. The emotional consequence is guilt. When you direct should statements toward others, you feel anger, frustration and resentment.

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LABELING AND MISLABELING this is an extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing your error, you attach a negative label to yourself. Im a loser. When someone elses behavior rubs you the wrong way, you attach a negative label to him: He is a goddam louse. Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded.

10. PERSONALIZATION - you see yourself as the cause of some negative external event which in fact you were not primarily responsible for.

EXERCISE

You are about to give a report and you notice that your heart is pounding. You feel tense and nervous because you think My God, Ill probably forget what I am supposed to say. My speech isnt any good anyway. My mind will blank out. Ill make a fool of myself. Your thinking errors involve: a. b. c. d. e. All-or-nothing thinking. Disqualifying the positive Jumping to conclusions (fortune teller error). Minimization. Labeling.

You have been trying to diet. This weekend youve been nervous, and, since you didnt have anything to do, youve been nibbling, nibbling. After your fourth piece of candy, you tell yourself, I just cant control myself. My dieting and jogging all week have gone down the drain. I must look like a balloon. I shouldnt have eaten that. I cant stand this. Im going to pig out all weekend! you begin to feel so guilty you push another handful of candy into your mouth in an abortive effort to feel better. Your distortions include: a. b. c. d. e. All or-nothing thinking. Mislabeling. Negative prediction. Should statement. Disqualifying the positive.

Start by Building Self- Esteem All negative emotional reactions inflict their damage only as a result of low selfesteem. A poor self-image is the magnifying glass that can transform a trivial mistake or an imperfection into an overwhelming symbol of personal defeat. Dr. Beck found that depressed patients see themselves as deficient in the very qualities they value most highly: intelligence, achievement, popularity, attractiveness, health and strength. He said a depressed self-image can be characterized by four Ds: you feel Defeated, Defective, Deserted, and Deprived.

Specific Methods for Boosting Self-Esteem 1. Talk Back to That Internal Critic - A sense of worthlessness is created by your internal selfcritical dialogue. It is self-degrading statements, such as I am a shit, I am inferior to other people, that create and feed your feelings of despair and poor self-esteem. In order to overcome this bad mental habit, 3 steps are necessary: a. Train yourself to recognize and write down the self-critical thoughts as they go through your mind; b. Learn why these thoughts are distorted; and c. Practice talking back to them so as to develop a more realistic self-appraisal system

Triple Column Technique to Restructure the Way you Think Automatic Thoughts (Self criticisms) I never do anything right Im always late Cognitive Distortion Rational Response (Self-defense) Nonsense! I do a lot of things right Im not always late. Thats ridiculous. Think of all the times, Ive been on time. If Im late more often than Id like, Ill work on this problem and develop a method for being more punctual Someone may be disappointed that Im late but its not the end of the world. Maybe the meeting wont even start on time

Overgeneralization Overgeneralization

Everyone will look down on Mind reading me Overgeneralization All or none thinking Fortune teller error

This shows what a jerk I am Ill make a fool of myself

Labeling Labeling Fortune teller error

Come on, now, Im not a jerk Ditto, Im not a fool either, I may appear foolish if I come in late, but this doesnt make me a fool. Everyone is late sometimes

Daily Record of Dysfunctional Thoughts Situation Potential customer hangs up on me when I call to describe our new insurance program. He said, get out of my goddam hair Emotions Angry, 99% Sad, 50% Automatic Thoughts Ill never sell a policy Id like to strangle the bastard I must have said the wrong thing Cognitive Distortions Overgeneralization Magnification; labeling Jumping to conclusions; personalization Rational Responses Ive sold a lot of policies He acted like a pain in the butt. We all do at times. Why let this get to me? I actually didnt do anything different from the way I usually approach a new customer. So why sweat it? Outcome

Angry, 50% Sad, 10%

2. Mental Biofeedback - this involves a systematic monitoring of your thoughts by noting down each negative thoughts and the daily total score. This frequently helps develop increased self- control; usually requires 3 weeks.

3. Cope, Dont Mope or brood/ sulk