Challenging Illogical Thoughts- Feeling Better Fast!

July 15, 2010 by admin.

The latest crisis is our financial situation which has a lot of people feeling anxious, depressed and worried, some for good reasons! Many are out of jobs looking for some time now, but facing an uphill battle.  In the meantime bills are still due and many are scrambling to make ends meet.  Some “opt-out” by not paying mortgages or other bills and just giving up.  Others borrow money here and there and cut costs, hoping to survive until they get employment again.  It’s times like this that challenge people!

One of my main therapeutic approaches is cognitive behavioral therapy which involves examining one’s thoughts to see if due to distortions such as making one’s problems bigger than they are, or making one’s possible solutions smaller than they are, or making absolute statements such as “no” hope, or “It’ll ‘never’ get better,” or labeling, such as “I’m no good.”  As you can see these thoughts minimize hope and contribute to increased anxiety and depression.  In therapy one learns to discover one’s illogical thoughts and challenge them by revising them to be more accurate such as “I know I feel anxious and depressed, but I also know there’s help.” As a result one is empowered to actively engage is the behaviors to make changes.

Another component of this therapy is to identify specific behaviors that can make one feel less anxious and more hopeful such as talking to a friend, engaging the services of a credit consumer agency, employing a job searcher, going out with one’s friends, and exercise.  Many of these types of behaviors positively affects one’s mood, again allowing a person to get out of the douldroms and make positive changes.

Yes, we all feel anxious and down at times, but there are things we can do to feel better. Let’s do them!

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