The Anxiety Skills Workbook by Stefan G. Hofmann uses a cognitive behavioural therapy approach to help you better manage your anxiety. One thing I liked was the cautionary note in the introduction that the book wasn't intended to address suicidality, severe depression, or problematic substance abuse, and anyone experiencing those should get in touch with… Continue reading Book Review: The Anxiety Skills Workbook
Tag: cognitive distortions
Book Review: Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss
Show Your Anxiety Who's Boss by Joel Minden provides strategies drawn from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to help manage anxiety. CBT is an evidence-based treatment, so while the strategies won't necessarily for everyone, they are legit, unlike many of the other self-help books floating around. The approach is broken down into three major steps: predictions,… Continue reading Book Review: Show Your Anxiety Who’s Boss
What Do You See In The Mirror?
When we look in the mirror, I suspect that very few of us see what's objectively there in the reflection. So why is that? Mirror recognition is not as simple as it may seem. The vast majority of animals, including my guinea pig munchkins, lack this ability. When we as humans look at the reflection… Continue reading What Do You See In The Mirror?
Shoulding Ourselves to Death
I saw a post on the topic of shoulding recently on Grounding Growth and wanted to continue the conversation. Definitely check out her stop the should worksheet. The word should can have several meanings, but the most relevant here is the one from Google dictionary, which Grounding Growth also referenced. "used to indicate obligation, duty,… Continue reading Shoulding Ourselves to Death
Are You a Pessimist? Or Just a Realist?
I got thinking about this recently after talking with a blogger friend who has the amazing ability to optimistically see the silver lining in almost any dark cloud, and I very much do not. It makes me wonder, though, whether that makes me a pessimist, or am I just a realist? To start off, it's… Continue reading Are You a Pessimist? Or Just a Realist?
Book review: How To Be Miserable
How To Be Miserable: 40 Strategies You Already Use by psychologist Randy J. Paterson challenges us to make our lives more miserable than the already are. The sneaky bit? He'll make us realize that we're already doing a lot of those things inadvertently. The book is broken down into 40 lessons, which are divided into… Continue reading Book review: How To Be Miserable
Drilling Down to Core Beliefs
Core beliefs are the underlying beliefs that we have about the self, others, and world, as well as the future. They arise as a result of the experiences we've been through, including trauma. Forms that core beliefs take They are held as absolutes, and tend to be expressed using words like "always" or "never". They… Continue reading Drilling Down to Core Beliefs
Mental myths that get in our way
We tend to create a lot of rules about how we should think, feel, and act. We may believe that there is some sort of objective truth to these rules, but the reality is they're really just mental myths. These examples come from Dialectical Behavioural Therapy: I don't deserve to get the things that I… Continue reading Mental myths that get in our way
Overgeneralizing an unsafe world
I've written before about cognitive distortions, and in this post I'm going to focus on overgeneralization. When something bad happens, the message I take from that is the world is an unsafe place. This feeling of being unsafe spreads from whatever is related to the problematic event to the world in general. People hurt me,… Continue reading Overgeneralizing an unsafe world
What, You Don’t Do Mind-Reading?!?
I've talked before about my tendency to experience mind-reading as a cognitive distortion, i.e. thinking that I know what others are thinking. I also do the reverse; I expect those close to me to know when something's wrong. The problem is, they're no better at mind-reading than I am. I feel like I'm not very… Continue reading What, You Don’t Do Mind-Reading?!?