Friday, April 9, 2010

Depressed, Anxious or Distorted? Part 2

Last time we explored how your negative thoughts can create anxiety, depression and the conditions to act out in addiction. There is something you can do about these pesky personal demons, you can begin to challenge your thinking!

Research shows that engaging in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or taking
prescribed medications (i.e. anti-depressants, anti-anxiety meds) will BOTH work on the basal ganglia of your brain (i.e. the area in your brain that controls motor control and learning).

In other words psychotherapy and engaging in the act of challenging your distorted thoughts will change your brain’s neural pathways.

Here is Part 2 of the Cognitive Distortions List


Share and do these with a loved one:


Magnification or minimization:

Exaggerating your errors and belittling your
successes or exaggerating other people’s
success and minimizing their flaws.

Emotional Reasoning:
“I feel it, therefore it must be true.” Assuming
that negative emotions reflect the way things
really are.

Shoulds:
Trying to motivate yourself because you think
you “should” “must”, “out to” or “have to” do
something.

Labelling:

Attaching a label to yourself instead of
describing the error. Instead of thinking “I
left the water running” you think, “I’m such a
loser”.

Personalization:
Seeing yourself as the cause of a negative event
you did not cause.

Any of these sound familiar to you?

In an upcoming blog I'll share how you can take action
to change your thinking and change your life!

Best of health and warmest regards, Paul Radkowski

info@liferecoveryprogram.com
http://www.liferecoveryprogram.com/