Do It Yourself Therapy Part II

Last week I covered the 3 Basic Principles behind the theory of Cognitive Therapy. Do It Yourself Therapy: Is It Right For You? Next, I want to point out some of the Cognitive Distortions that contribute to shaping depressive moods.

In case you missed the article, here is a quick recap:

• All of a person's moods are a direct result of their thoughts and attitudes.

• When depressed, a person's thoughts tend to dwell on negativity.

• A person's negative thoughts are nearly always exaggerated and distorted.

Principle number three talks about distortion in a depressed person's thought processes. Here are the 10 main Cognitive Distortions according to Dr. David Burns:

• All Or Nothing - Most things in life are not clearly black or white. All Or Nothing Thinkers cannot see the gray areas in their life. If something doesn't go perfectly, these people may think themselves a failure.

• Overgeneralization - Over exaggerating is what I call this distortion. This is letting one negative occurrence dictate a negative pattern (like thinking that you are going to flunk out of school just because you received one bad grade on a test.)

• Mental Filter - Dwelling on one particular negative detail and refusing to see anything else is what a person with Negative Tunnel Vision does.

• Disqualifying The Positive - Negative thinking can take the most positive experience and make it seem like a negative experience.

• Jumping To Conclusions - A person's mind can jump to a negative conclusion when the facts are not out yet. People who jump to conclusions may decide that others dislike them or something they have done and accept that without finding out whether or not it is true.

• Magnification or Minimization - This is warping something negative into a bigger deal than it actually is, or making something positive into a smaller deal than it is in reality.

• Emotional Reasoning - When thinking negatively, a person may be prone to believe that their negative thoughts are based on reality when in fact they are not.

• Should Statements - Guilt is the result of a person trying to mentally beat themselves up with thoughts of what they should and shouldn't do.

• Labeling and Mislabeling - This is the same as stereotyping and is the extreme of overgeneralization. This is when a person labels themselves or someone else because of one negative incident. How hard is it for people to redeem themselves after being labeled a loser (especially if they were labeled that way because of just one incident).
  The copyright of the article Do It Yourself Therapy Part II in Female Depression is owned by Dena Lambert. Permission to republish Do It Yourself Therapy Part II in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

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