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Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy
Human beings have always known about cognitive therapy, but it was not "named" or used as an official therapeutic technique until recently. Shakespeare said in Hamlet, "There is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." This concept is the basis of cognitive therapy: to change your feelings, you need only to change the way you're thinking about your situation. We touched on this subject earlier in our lesson on catastrophizing, and in this module we'll get into the subject of cognitve perceptions in a deeper way. Let's look at a person in the midst of a panic attack. We'll call her Alexa*. Alexa is a married woman of twenty-nine, with a 13-month-old daughter and she works full time selling advertising time for a television network. She's suffering from frightening feelings of panic, and despite a clean bill of health from her physician, keeps thinking she's suffering from a serious health problem of one kind or another. Alexa worked to overcome her feelings of panic by focusing on how she was perceiving herself and others and making a concerted effort to be aware of and to change her unhealthy perceptions. To summarize Alexa's work on her panic disorder, let's look at some classic instances of unhealthy perceptions and show how dramatically the picture changes for Alexa when she chooses to view her situation differently. ASSUMING THE WORST: Perception: "My vision is blurry and my stomach is upset. I'm sure this must be symptomatic of a brain tumor or other cancer." ALL OR NOTHING THINKING: Perception: "There's something seriously wrong with me that I'm so anxious all the time." PERFECTIONISM: Perception: "I can't believe I forgot to pick up the milk. I can't do anything right." CATEGORIZING: Perception: "I'm a jerk for feeling this way." PROJECTION: Perception: "I must be such a disappointment to my husband." BLACK AND WHITE THINKING: Perception: "I'm always such a mess; I'm never any good to anyone." LOOKING ONLY AT THE NEGATIVE: Perception:"I'm a lousy mother; what's wrong with me that I can't take care of my child?" AMPLIFYING THE PROBLEM: Perception: "Why do I always have so much trouble keeping a handle on things? I can't do anything." TIME DISTORTION: Perception: "This has been going on forever and will never end." If any of Alexa's patterns of unhealthy perceptions sound familiar to you, you might want to create a log of your own. When you find yourself having extreme thoughts, write them down. Concentrate on them. See if you can understand what the reality behind your extreme perception is. Write it down. Do this exercise whenever you're feeling overwhelmed by negative thinking. Keep a log for yourself. As you get better and better at controlling irrational thoughts of panic, you will be less and less likely to succumb to regression and panic attacks will slowly become an element of your past. If you would like to continue the Panic Disorder lessons and learn another therapeutic approach for dealing with panic, please read Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. If you would like to start at the beginning of the Panic Disorder lessons, please read What to Expect When You are Diagnosed with a Panic Disorder. ![]() ![]() RECOMMENDED READING FROM THE PSYSTORE: ![]() ![]() by Aaron T. Beck, Gary Emery (Contributor), Ruth L. Greenberg Our Price: $16.80 "Here is the long-awaited book that is the first to present a comprehensive cognitive model for understanding and treating anxiety disorders and phobias. "This important book lays the groundwork for cognitive therapy of phobias and anxiety disorders and offers promise for significant advances in therapeutics" --Gerald L. Klerman, Harvard Medical School. For a selection of books on this topic, visit the Psystore. ![]() |
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