Clear away the cobwebs

In these stressful days, you may find it useful to study the ten cognitive distortions identified by Dr. David Burns. I first came across these in Burns' self-help book Feeling Good many years ago.

The basic technique is to write down a thought that's troubling you, and see which of the cognitive distortions may apply to it. Then reword the thought in more objective terms. It can also be helpful to rate your belief in the original thought and, later, in the revised thought.

For instance, suppose you are thinking, "I'll never get that promotion." Your belief in this is, say, 80% - you're almost certain of it. 

Then consider if one or more of the distorted thought processes is at work here. You might decide that #7 applies - emotional reasoning. And maybe # 5(b) - fortune telling.

Something may feel true without necessarily being true. And predicting the future is dicey business. How many times have you made a false prediction or had a feeling of doom that turned out to be unjustified?

Next, ask yourself if you can replace the thought with one that is not affected by these distortions. You might say, "It seems as if getting that promotion will be harder than I hoped." Rate your belief in this new thought - maybe you believe it 60% or so.

Now go on to the next step: why will getting the promotion be harder than you hoped? "Because the boss hates me." Write this down. You believe it 100%.

But are there distortions in this thought, too? Maybe # 5(a) - mind reading. Perhaps also # 3 - mental filter.

Have you focused only on those times when your boss has been hostile, and suppressed your memory of those times when he has been pleasant? Have you assumed he has a negative attitude toward you personally, when you actually don't know what he's thinking?

Revise your thought. Now it might be something like: "My boss can be hard to get along with sometimes." Rate your belief in this, and then ask why you feel this way. You'll come up with another thought to analyze.

Continue in this way, digging deeper into your thoughts in a step-by-step fashion, until you have arrived at a clearer perspective, one that is not clouded by distorted thinking.

This deceptively simple technique can be amazingly powerful. Give it a try.

Comments

There are many aspects to mental health. No single approach is complete. Besides mental approaches, diet and exercise can also be crucial. To have perfect mental health you have to get all of them right.

If your mind is full of cognitive distortions, obviously, it is desirable to reomve them and think more rationally. However if you have no cognitive distortions that does not gurantee you will not have any emotional disturbances.

See:
http://www.geocities.com/chs4o8pt/meditation.html

"For example, hypoglycemia (low blood sugar) can cause anxiety and/or depression. Sugar is the body's source of energy. If there isn't enough sugar in the blood, the brain may not get enough energy and the body may react by producing stress hormones which then causes the body to release sugar into the blood. These stress hormones produce the symptoms we call anxiety. Another symptom of hypoglycemia is caused when the brain does not get enough energy and is unable to produce sufficient quantities of neurotransmitters. In this case depression may result.

...

No amount of meditation or any other mental exercise will cure such an underlying metabolic imbalance. Trying relaxation exercises to relieve anxiety will not supply the brain with more energy. (You might temporarily reduce the brain's need for energy and reduce the feelings of anxiety by entering a deeply relaxed state through relaxation exercises, but this is not really a solution because you can't function in daily life in a state where you are half asleep.) Trying positive thinking to relieve depression will not give the brain energy to produce neurotransmitters. Engaging in cognitive therapy or self analysis may result in a remarkably well adjusted person who still has anxiety and or depression. In the case of hypoglycemia, the best solution may be to try changing one's diet to avoid all refined sugar and refined carbohydrates (white bread, white rice) as well as avoiding caffeine, tobacco and alcohol and eating nutritionally balanced snacks to keep blood sugar level stable. This is explained in more detail at
http://www.hypoglycemia.asn.au.

...

There are consequences to meditators from this type of mood disorder. If one's nerves are on a hair trigger because of high levels of stress hormones, then any minor thing that might upset one can cause a stress reaction. One consequence of a stress reaction is that the mind can become fixated on the thing causing the stress reaction. (This fixation can result in symptoms such as obsessive compulsive disorder, misophonia (dislike of certain sounds), and phobias.) If you are trying to meditate but your mind is fixated on something that has caused a stress reaction, you may find it hard to concentrate correctly on the meditation and you may feel that meditation is too difficult. Also, if one is subject to strong emotions of anxiety or depression, those emotions can make meditation more difficult. In meditation one tries to reduce the influence of the ego by letting go of attachments and aversions. If those attachments and aversions are the result of this type of metabolism induced anxiety, depression, or fixation one may become easily confused and think they are being selfish or self centered and unable to let go and spiritually immature when in fact they are simply affected by their metabolism. Understanding why one is having a difficulty like this may help one work through it."

[Øst!]

I read some of Dr. Burns' book before. Very strong, powerful techniques. For someone who is strongly depressed, they can be hard to use, but they are very important to learn.

[Michael H]

It's been my experience that just recognizing thoughts as thoughts can have a profound effect. It's also been my observation that most people accept their own ideas at any given moment as absolute.

This tendency can have major impacts on all aspects of society. We're witnessing the effects on the global financial and equity markets right now, as Joe Nocera observes in the Times today. Italics are mine:

Mr. Shiller, a leader in the field of behavioral economics, believes that bubbles and crashes are a kind of social epidemic. “Ideas become contagion,” he said. When housing prices were rising quickly in the early part of this century, he said, “people misinterpreted the meaning of the price increase. The theory that housing prices could only go up began to sound plausible. It became a thought virus. And people believed it was true rather than realizing it was a thought epidemic.”

Crashes tend to feed on a similar dynamic, except in reverse. Mr. Shiller did a study of the days leading up to Black Monday in 1987 — days that also had sharp market drops — asking people what they were reading and talking about. Invariably, they were reading and talking about the big price drops, which led them to pull money from the market, which led to yet more price drops. “Exactly the same thing is happening now,” he said.

“At times of crisis, people have an instinctive need to get into a huddle and talk about it with other people,” he added. “On the one hand, this creates a sense of community. On the other hand, it amplifies the speed with which news is related.”

This has gone on forever, and recognizing it in others is much easier than recognizing it in ourselves. We're all in the predicament of regarding our own ideas as absolute. Yet, those ideas are simply images on a screen. We become fixated on the images, while remaining oblivious to the projector and the screen.

You need to be careful when presenting this type of thing to the public. It should be presented in a context in which it is explained that not all problems can be fixed by this approach.

If you imply that this approach is sufficient for any one to use to feel good and that all problems are the result of cognitive distortions, then you are basically saying that if you are having problems it is because you are "stupid".

This is extremely unhelpful and also incorrect.

There are many many reasons people might have problems that have nothing to do with cognitive distortions. For example if someone suffers a loss they will naturally and rightly feel grief. In such cases those who allow themselves to feel the pain of their loss will be better off and recover faster than those suppress it and develop other dysfunctions as a result of suppression. Identifying all psychological problems as the result of a cognitive distortion can even become a convenient means by which to suppress feeling that should be made conscious. This should be avoided

[Michael Prescott]

You need to be careful when presenting this type of thing to the public.

My readers aren't dummies. They can think for themselves.

[william]

This approach may be very similar to the cause and effect diagram used in industry to find the cause of an effect, which is usually a defect or problem. Very powerful approach to finding a root cause of a problem; also if one asks why that cause several times this can often reveal that over 95% of the problems are systemic.

We tend to blame humans for systemic problems. Easier to blame then find the root cause. What is the absolute root cause of these thoughts that hinder our happiness? Why it is unawareness or ignorance. The very thing the Buddha realized was the cause of our suffering i.e. unhappiness.

Concerning “should” statements. Dr. Hora has an interesting take on should statements.

“Take no thought for what should be or what should not be; seek ye first to know the good of God, which already is.” One of those easy to state and very difficult to do teachings.

He believed that absolute shouldlessness could only be attained when the following principle is understood. “Yes is good, but no is also good”.

Moving from ignorance to pure awareness may be the law of progress (cycle of life) defined. One only has to look at the politics in action now in America to see high emotional lack of reasoning drama in action. Ok maybe some “low” drama in there also.

[Paul Welsh]

I don't really see what the issue is from above. As far as I can see Michael is simply saying "try it, it might work" not "this will transform your life - get the book and live by it". Sheeesh.

[Michael H]

I agree Paul. I think MP's just recognizing that recent events have been chaotic and stressful, and that it's times like these where even healthy people can find it helpful to take a breath.

Anyone struggling with deeply troubling issues should always seek out professional assistance.

[patrick prescott]

Thanks for the link. I'll try to use this in my classes. I have a propaganda game that goes over the different techniques used, and at first glance it looks like propaganda uses these cognitive distortions against the target audience.

[sandra]

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[Michael Prescott]

Sandra, you're not making sense. Oh my God, she's choking. She's choking!

[Barbara]

That's great. Thanks, Michael. I know I sometimes engage in some of these thought processes, and I can think of people that I hear speak such thoughts out loud. So I'm sharing the link. It's important to stop and consider sometimes how we program ourselves for happiness or unhappiness -- for whatever reason.