TRUTHful Thinking


We always hear the term "positive thinking", right? Positive thinking can change our attitude, which then changes the outcome. Our brain believes everything that it perceives. So when you're watching a zombie movie your brain believes for that duration of the movie that there are zombies coming to eat your brain. The limbic system of your brain takes over. This system controls emotions. So since we are feeling scared because there are zombies coming to get us then our brain is going to start sending messages to our brain stem that we're in danger and physilogical changes start occurring. Our senses become more acute, our heart rate goes up, your blood actually starts to thicken (to prepare for an injury), and your hands and feet might get cold since your body is sending lots of blood to your mid-section of your body to protect your major organs. It's so cool! Here's a link if you want to read more about the fight, flight, or freeze response. 

Back to zombies. We really know that zombies aren't real. It's an untrue statement to say that zombies are real. So if we want our bodies to get out of this fight, flight, or freeze response then we need our frontal lobe to be in control again because that's where our problem solving and intellectual/ logical thinking takes place. 

Let's move away from zombies and now apply this to something real, like depression. When a person has depression they have lost hope. They see no end, they feel hopeless. Emotions are very real and powerful; that limbic system is in charge. David Burns is a very well-known and respected American psychiatrist who popularized the work of Albert Ellis's and Aaron T. Beck on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). In a nutshell, CBT is the notion that our thoughts and beliefs effect our mood. "However, the basic concept behind cognitive therapy goes all the way back to Epictetus, the Greek philosopher. Nearly 2,000 years ago he wrote that people are disturbed not by things, but by the views we take of them. In other words, our thoughts (or "cognitions") create all of our feelings. Thus when we make healthy changes in the way we think, we experience healthy changes in the way we feel."[1] 

Burns created a thought exercise to do which he calls the Mood Log. You take a specific event and go through each of the emotions listed and circle the ones you feel. Then write the percentage of how strongly you feel those emotions. Next, you write down a negative (untrue) thought or thoughts you have, which then you write a positive thought. Now I'm going to add TRUTHFUL positive thought, because remember, we need to believe it so we can accept it. I'll do a quick example of how to do this. Note: this is an example that my professor shared that exactly happened in other class he taught. The baby died by aspirating vomit while he was sleeping.

Upsetting Event: My baby died

Sad (all circled)                 Embarrassed (all circled)

Anxious (all circled)         Hopeless (all circled)

Guilty (all circled)             Frustrated (all circled)

Inferior (all circled)           Angry (non circled)

Lonely (all but unloved and abandoned)    


Negative (untrue) Thoughts                                                Truthful and Positive Thoughts

1.  It's my fault that my baby died                       1. I did not cause my baby to vomit or to breath it in

2. I am not a good mother                                   2. I cared for and loved my baby in many ways

3. I'm scared to have another baby                     3. Yes, there is a risk, but remember how much joy we had

                     4. 


After she completed this mood log, did she still feel those emotions? Of course, but they were not as overwhelming and strong. She felt some hope. I was introduced to the mood log about a year ago from my therapist. Just the act of writing down those negative thoughts helped my frontal lobe kick into control more and I was able to see these thoughts through logic and reason. Some of them were easy to see that they were irrational and not true. Others, I had to work harder at finding a true thought to replace the negative (untrue) thought. I had to repeat this mood log or repeat these true thoughts many times before they finally stuck and I didn't believe those negative or untrue thoughts anymore. Some were easier to get rid of and others took more time. 

Hope Cycle 
My professor said that the greatest tool in overcoming depression is hope.This got me thinking a lot and all of this finally clicked in my head. Finding something true, like a true positive thought, is like hope. This hope doesn't take away those powerful emotions, but it does help alleviate them. The more true positive thoughts we have the more hope we have. And the more hope we have the less powerful those emotions are. This is what I have coined the Hope Cycle. 


After going through the Hope Cycle however many times a person needs, those negative thoughts will go away, which will then change the emotions we will to better ones. This will naturally change how your body feels. The young mom from the example above will always miss her baby that passed away, but she won't feel that soul-sucking sadness, and will instead be able to say how honored she was to have him with her even for that short time. 

I just find it fascinating and so hopeful this idea of cognitive therapy. Our brains and thoughts are so powerful. I completely agree with Dr. David Burns because I've seen it change me. If you're struggling with depression, anxiety, body image issues, addiction, or something else that is causing you sadness, pain, or any negative emotion, try this mood log out. Think about what is causing you to feel those emotions and write down an untrue negative thought, and then find a true and positive thought to replace it with. Obviously, I’m not a therapist and I’m not claiming this will solve depression or any other mental disorders. 

I've linked some great articles and resources below if you want to read more about this. I've also linked a pdf of the Mood Log that you can print off. There is also a link of the TEDx talk of Burns explaining CBT. Please comment or leave me your questions. Please share on your Facebook so others can read this and please send this post to someone that you think could benefit from this. Thanks for reading!

                                                                                   ♡♡♡ -Allison



Resources

1. What is CBT

https://www.csulb.edu/navigating-grad-studies-at-the-beach/succeeding-during-the-pandemic-part-2-maintaining-mental-health

2. David Burns TEDx talk

https://feelinggood.com/tedxtalk/

3. Mood Log

http://content.randomhouse.com/assets/9780767923897/pdfs/Daily%20Mood%20Log.pdf

4. Understanding the stress response 

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/understanding-the-stress-response






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