Cognitive Behavioural Therapy and the Cognitive Distortions
Cognitive psychotherapy was the creation of Dr Aaron Beck.
He grew to be disappointed at the long standing psycho-dynamic method to psychotherapy and its efficacy.
Whilst counselling an enormous number of deeply depressed patients it came to him that one thing all of them had in common was a continuous negative self talk.
We think with our senses and all of us partake of an internal dialogue or chat with ourselves to some degree or an other.
It is perfectly normal.
Dr Beck theorised the negative thoughts were making unhelpful emotions, plus from there the pessimistic emotions give rise to unhelpful behaviour.
This was the connecting of thoughts to emotions and behaviour and so the creation of cognitive psychotherapy which later on combined with behaviourism to produce cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT.
Dr Beck examined depressing self talk and realised the negative thoughts were distortions of reality.
These thoughts have been embedded by means of habit of repetition such that in a given situation an automatic negative thought would come to the individual and they would feel the depressing emotion.
He devised a plan whereby sufferers could observe their thoughts, noting negative thoughts then changing them for realistic thoughts.
It really is most important that they're changed with realistic thoughts and never positive thoughts that are commonly also distortions and hence not true.
Positive thoughts, therefore, are of limited worth and infrequently any lasting usefulness.
The depressed patient would practise catching the depressing thought and exchanging it with a realistic thought.
This changes the resultant negative emotion to what is called a helpful negative emotion.
By way of example as opposed to depression the patient might undergo disappointment or regret which is not debilitating and allows the patient to "get on with their life".
This turned out to be very successful.
There are a variety of distortions and I shall define them here.
BLACK AND WHITE THINKING This is if you perceive things within black and white categories - all good or all bad.
If the accomplishment falls short of wonderful you see yourself as a total failure.
OVERGENERALIZATION The usage of universals - totally, never, all, every.
This distortion leads you to view an individual negative incident as a a pattern of never ending defeat.
MENTAL FILTER Merely seeing the "the weeds in the garden".
You pick on a single negative item or else feature then dwell on it exclusively hence your image of all reality results in being darkened, like a drop of ink that colours all the beaker of water.
DISQUALIFYING THE POSITIVE You reject positive experiences through insisting that "don't count" for some reason or other, this way you may sustain a negative perception that is contradicted through your every single day experiences.
JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS With no certain evidence that convincingly support your deduction you make a negative interpretation MIND READING You arbitrarily conclude that somebody is reacting negatively to you, and also you don't make an effort to check it out.
This tends to contribute to social phobia.
FORTUNE TELLING You think that things will turn out poorly, and you feel convinced that prediction is an already a fact.
MAGNIFICATION Exaggerating the Negative.
You exaggerate the importance of things (e.
g.
your fault or others triumph), MINIMALISATION You unsuitably reduce in size things until they seem tiny (e.
g.
your attractive qualities or else others imperfections).
EMOTIONAL REASONING "I sense it so it has to be true" You assume your negative feelings automatically mirror how things in actuality are.
SHOULD STATEMENTS When you aim should statements to other people or the world in general you feel frustration and anger.
Point it to yourself and you feel guilt.
LABELING This is an extreme type of overgeneralization.
You or someone else is 100% loser or idiot or else nasty piece of work.
But most people are a mix of a lot of attributes.
PERSONALISATION You see yourself as the reason for some negative external happening that actually you weren't primarily to blame for.
He grew to be disappointed at the long standing psycho-dynamic method to psychotherapy and its efficacy.
Whilst counselling an enormous number of deeply depressed patients it came to him that one thing all of them had in common was a continuous negative self talk.
We think with our senses and all of us partake of an internal dialogue or chat with ourselves to some degree or an other.
It is perfectly normal.
Dr Beck theorised the negative thoughts were making unhelpful emotions, plus from there the pessimistic emotions give rise to unhelpful behaviour.
This was the connecting of thoughts to emotions and behaviour and so the creation of cognitive psychotherapy which later on combined with behaviourism to produce cognitive behavioural therapy or CBT.
Dr Beck examined depressing self talk and realised the negative thoughts were distortions of reality.
These thoughts have been embedded by means of habit of repetition such that in a given situation an automatic negative thought would come to the individual and they would feel the depressing emotion.
He devised a plan whereby sufferers could observe their thoughts, noting negative thoughts then changing them for realistic thoughts.
It really is most important that they're changed with realistic thoughts and never positive thoughts that are commonly also distortions and hence not true.
Positive thoughts, therefore, are of limited worth and infrequently any lasting usefulness.
The depressed patient would practise catching the depressing thought and exchanging it with a realistic thought.
This changes the resultant negative emotion to what is called a helpful negative emotion.
By way of example as opposed to depression the patient might undergo disappointment or regret which is not debilitating and allows the patient to "get on with their life".
This turned out to be very successful.
There are a variety of distortions and I shall define them here.
BLACK AND WHITE THINKING This is if you perceive things within black and white categories - all good or all bad.
If the accomplishment falls short of wonderful you see yourself as a total failure.
OVERGENERALIZATION The usage of universals - totally, never, all, every.
This distortion leads you to view an individual negative incident as a a pattern of never ending defeat.
MENTAL FILTER Merely seeing the "the weeds in the garden".
You pick on a single negative item or else feature then dwell on it exclusively hence your image of all reality results in being darkened, like a drop of ink that colours all the beaker of water.
DISQUALIFYING THE POSITIVE You reject positive experiences through insisting that "don't count" for some reason or other, this way you may sustain a negative perception that is contradicted through your every single day experiences.
JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS With no certain evidence that convincingly support your deduction you make a negative interpretation MIND READING You arbitrarily conclude that somebody is reacting negatively to you, and also you don't make an effort to check it out.
This tends to contribute to social phobia.
FORTUNE TELLING You think that things will turn out poorly, and you feel convinced that prediction is an already a fact.
MAGNIFICATION Exaggerating the Negative.
You exaggerate the importance of things (e.
g.
your fault or others triumph), MINIMALISATION You unsuitably reduce in size things until they seem tiny (e.
g.
your attractive qualities or else others imperfections).
EMOTIONAL REASONING "I sense it so it has to be true" You assume your negative feelings automatically mirror how things in actuality are.
SHOULD STATEMENTS When you aim should statements to other people or the world in general you feel frustration and anger.
Point it to yourself and you feel guilt.
LABELING This is an extreme type of overgeneralization.
You or someone else is 100% loser or idiot or else nasty piece of work.
But most people are a mix of a lot of attributes.
PERSONALISATION You see yourself as the reason for some negative external happening that actually you weren't primarily to blame for.
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