Posted by mattdds on March 11, 2003, at 9:24:29
In reply to Re: But..., posted by Dinah on March 11, 2003, at 8:14:29
Hi Dinah,
Sorry to hear you didn't have much luck with CBT. I had (and sometimes still do have) that same problem of making your more emotional side "see the light". It is hard work! But for me it paid off.
Did you do the homework exercises? Like the daily mood log, where you write down your automatic thoughts and try to refute them? Or was your CBT work mainly during the therapy session?
If you were doing the exercises, you can troubleshoot. If you believe something intellectually, but can't believe it emotionally, you need to do some more work.
Here are some things I've found helpful. I will use terminology from David Burns style of CBT, which seems to be the most commonly understood here.
1. Use several approaches to put lie to the negative thought (acceptance, feared fantasy technique, identify the distortions, examine the evidence, thinking in shades of gray, semantic method, etc.). Sometimes, with more persistent negative thoughts I have, I have to use about 5-10 different methods. It takes persistence.
2. Make sure the new thought is 100% believable. You don't want to "fool" yourself with pollyanna-ish thinking here. The idea is that reality is a lot friendlier than we are perceiving it to be when we are depressed. So simply trying to find an accurate, balanced perception of a situation is the goal, not "The Power of Positive Thinking" stuff.
3. Measure your belief in the negative thought in terms of a percent. How much do you believe it? 50%? 100%? Do this before your work and after, and see if the methods you are using are working. If not, it is time to switch methods. For example, if you believe the thought "I am a stupid loser", assign a percent value representing the strength of your belief, say 75%. Work on that thought until you get it down to 0%. You can think of depression as a network of twisted thoughts and beliefs, all of which can be worked out individually. If you reduce your belief in this network of thoughts by 50%, you will obtain a 50% remission. As your belief in the thoughts that give rise to your depression go down, so will your symptoms. At least this was definitely my experience.
Keep at it. And this is not something that is "different" about you. I think everyone that does CBT has this stumbling block. It took me many months to be able to deal with certain thoughts, but I persisted and it certainly paid off.
Do you have one **specific** negative thought that is bothering you, that you can't seem to shake? Where were you when you thought it? Who were you with? What emotions are tied to that thought?
Hope this helps,
Matt
poster:mattdds
thread:207189
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/psycho/20030310/msgs/208022.html