Therapy is a powerful healing tool, and we're all about normalizing getting help and finding a qualified practitioner. Enjoy this anonymous blog post all about cognitive behavior therapy, and be sure to subscribe to our newsletter to get an empowering email each week!
Taking care of your mental health should be as normal as taking care of your physical health.
Mental health will look different to everyone. Working with someone such as a healthcare professional, family member, trusted friend, or yourself to identify issues and seek the best methods of therapy are strongly recommended and encouraged.
One type of therapy we would like to highlight is Cognitive-behavioral therapy.
Cognitive-behavioral therapy is defined as, “a short-term, goal-oriented psychotherapy treatment that takes a hands-on, practical approach to problem-solving. Its goal is to change patterns of thinking or behavior that are behind people's difficulties, and so change the way they feel.”
There are ten types of thinking and behaviors that can have a detrimental effect on our lives. These thoughts and behaviors are referred to as distorted thinking.
Below are the ten different types of distorted thinking. Use the list below to see if you consciously or unconsciously practice any of these distorted thinking behaviors.
All-or-nothing thinking: You look at things in absolute, black-and-white categories.
Overgeneralization: You view negative events as a never-ending pattern of defeat.
Mental filter: You dwell on the negatives and ignore the positives.
Discounting the positives: You insist that your accomplishments or positive qualities don’t count.
Jumping to conclusions: You conclude things are bad without any definitive evidence.
Mind reading: You assume people are reacting negatively to you.
Fortune-telling: You predict that things will turn out badly.
Magnification or minimization: You blow things way out of proportion or you shrink their importance.
Emotional reasoning: You reason from how you feel: “I feel like an idiot, so I must be one.”
“Should” statements: You criticize yourself or other people who “shoulds,” “shouldn't,” “musts,” “oughts,” and “have-tos.”
Labeling: Instead of saying, “I made a mistake,” you tell yourself, “I’m a jerk” or “a loser.”
Blame: You blame yourself for something you weren’t entirely responsible for, or you blame other people and overlook ways that you contributed to a problem.
After reviewing the list, can you think of times or instances where you adopted distorted ways of thinking? Why does that happen? It happens because your thoughts create those feelings. But the truth is this, your feelings aren’t facts!
“Your thoughts create your emotions therefore, your emotions cannot prove that your thoughts are accurate. Unpleasant feelings merely indicate you are thinking something negative and believing it.”
It all comes down to our perception and if we are living realistically.
The goal is to determine if there is distorted thinking happening and to modify thinking patterns accordingly.
Submitted anonymously
GoddessCeremony.com