Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Dummies Read online

  Table of Contents

  Introduction

  About This Book

  Conventions Used in This Book

  What You're Not to Read

  Foolish Assumptions

  How This Book Is Organised

  Part I: Introducing CBT Basics

  Part II: Charting the Course: Defining Problems and Setting Goals

  Part III: Putting CBT into Action

  Part IV: Looking Backwards and Moving Forwards

  Part V: The Part of Tens

  Appendixes

  Icons Used in This Book

  Where to Go From Here

  Part I

  Chapter 1: You Feel the Way You Think

  Using Scientifically Tested Methods

  Understanding CBT

  Combining science, philosophy and behaviour

  Progressing from problems to goals

  Making the Thought-Feeling Link

  Emphasising the meanings you attach to events

  Acting out

  Learning Your ABCs

  Characterising CBT

  Chapter 2: Spotting Errors in Your Thinking

  Catastrophising: Turning Mountains Back Into Molehills

  All-or-Nothing Thinking: Finding Somewhere In-between

  Fortune-Telling: Stepping Away From the Crystal Ball

  Mind-Reading: Taking Your Guesses with a Pinch of Salt

  Emotional Reasoning: Reminding Yourself That Feelings Aren't Facts

  Overgeneralising: Avoiding the Part/Whole Error

  Labelling: Giving Up the Rating Game

  Making Demands: Thinking Flexibly

  Mental Filtering: Keeping an Open Mind

  Disqualifying the Positive: Keeping the Baby When Throwing Out the Bathwater

  Low Frustration Tolerance: Realising You Can Bear the 'Unbearable'

  Personalising: Removing Yourself from the Centre of the Universe

  Chapter 3: Tackling Toxic Thoughts

  Catching NATs

  Making the thought-feeling link

  Becoming more objective about your thoughts

  Stepping Through the ABC Form I

  Creating Constructive Alternatives: Completing the ABC Form II

  Chapter 4: Behaving like a Scientist: Designing and Conducting Behavioural Experiments

  Seeing for Yourself: Reasons for Doing Behavioural Experiments

  Testing Out Predictions

  Seeking Evidence to See Which Theory Best Fits the Facts

  Conducting Surveys

  Making Observations

  Ensuring Successful Behavioural Experiments

  Keeping Records of Your Experiments

  Chapter 5: Pay Attention! Refocusing and Retraining Your Awareness

  Training in Task Concentration

  Choosing to concentrate

  Tuning in to tasks and the world around you

  Tackling the task concentration record sheet

  Becoming More Mindful

  Being present in the moment

  Letting your thoughts pass by

  Discerning when not to listen to yourself

  Incorporating mindful daily tasks

  Tolerating upsetting images and unpleasant ideas

  Part II

  Chapter 6: Exploring Emotions

  Naming Your Feelings

  Thinking What to Feel

  Understanding the Anatomy of Emotions

  Comparing Healthy and Unhealthy Emotions

  Spotting the difference in thinking

  Spotting the difference in behaving, and ways you want to behave

  Spotting the difference in what you focus on

  Spotting Similarities in Your Physical Sensations

  Identifying Feelings about Feelings

  Defining Your Emotional Problems

  Making a statement

  Rating your emotional problem

  Chapter 7: Identifying Solutions That Cause You Problems

  When Feeling Better Can Make Your Problems Worse

  Getting Over Depression without Getting Yourself Down

  Loosening Your Grip on Control

  Feeling Secure in an Uncertain World

  Surmounting the Side Effects of Excessive Safety-Seeking

  Wending Your Way Out of Worry

  Preventing the Perpetuation of Your Problems

  Helping Yourself: Putting the Petals on Your Vicious Flower

  Chapter 8: Setting Your Sights on Goals

  Putting SPORT into Your Goals

  Homing In on How You Want to Be Different

  Setting goals in relation to your current problems

  Making a statement

  Maximising Your Motivation

  Identifying inspiration for change

  Focusing on the benefits of change

  Completing a cost-benefit analysis

  Recording your progress

  Part III

  Chapter 9: Standing Up to Anxiety and Facing Fear

  Acquiring Anti-Anxiety Attitudes

  Thinking realistically about the probability of bad events

  Avoiding extreme thinking

  Taking the fear out of fear

  Attacking Anxiety

  Winning by not fighting

  Defeating fear with FEAR

  Repeatedly confronting your fears

  Keeping your exposure challenging but not overwhelming

  Shedding safety behaviours

  Recording your fear-fighting

  Overriding Common Anxieties

  Socking it to social anxiety

  Waging war on worry

  Pounding on panic

  Assaulting agoraphobia

  Dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder

  Hitting back at fear of heights

  Chapter 10: Abolishing Addictions

  Putting a Name to Your Problem

  Familiarising Yourself with the Many Faces of Addiction

  Accepting Yourself and Your Addiction

  Securing Suitable Support

  Deciding to Desist

  Counting the costs

  Being honest about the benefits

  Transforming Intention into Action

  Making a date

  Cruising through cravings

  Extending the time between urge and action

  Dealing with deprivation

  Putting positive obstacles in place

  Leaving nothing to chance

  Creating constructive conditions for continued recovery

  Cleaning house

  Taking up supportive socialising

  Planning to Prevent Relapse

  Chapter 11: Beating Body Image Blues

  Making Friends with the Mirror

  Do I have a serious body image problem?

  Do I have an eating disorder?

  Considering hypothetical cases

  Taking Advertising and Media Messages with a Pinch of Salt

  Recognising your own body image issues

  Accepting yourself

  Seeing yourself as a whole person

  Saluting your Body for Services Rendered

  Enjoying scintillating sensations

  Doing your daily duties

  Valuing your vehicle for experience

  Choosing to Change for all the Right Reasons

  Highlighting health

  Maximising enjoyment

  Bringing out your best

  Being daring

  Chapter 12: Deconstructing and Demolishing Depression

  Understanding the Nature of Depression

  Looking at what Fuels Depression

  Going Round and Round in Your Head: Ruminative Thinking


  Catching yourself in the act

  Arresting ruminations before they arrest you

  Activating Yourself as an Antidepressant

  Tackling inactivity

  Dealing with the here and now: Solving problems

  Taking care of yourself and your environment

  Getting a Good Night's Sleep

  Setting realistic sleep expectations

  Making your bedroom oh so cosy

  ACTing against Depression

  Practising acceptance

  Considering compassion

  Obtaining a new outlook

  Managing Suicidal Thoughts

  Chapter 13: Overcoming Obsessions

  Identifying and Understanding Obsessional Problems

  Understanding obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)

  Recognising health anxiety

  Understanding body dysmorphic disorder (BDD)

  Identifying Unhelpful Behaviours

  Acquiring Anti-Obsessional Attitudes

  Tolerating doubt and uncertainty

  Trusting your judgement

  Treating your thoughts as nothing more than thoughts

  Being flexible and not trying too hard

  Using external and practical criteria

  Allowing your mind and body to do their own things

  Normalising physical sensations and imperfections

  Facing Your Fears: Reducing (and Stopping) Rituals

  Putting up firm resistance

  Delaying and modifying rituals

  Being Realistic about Responsibility

  Dividing up your responsibility pie

  Retraining your attention

  Chapter 14: Overcoming Low Self-esteem and Accepting Yourself

  Identifying Issues of Self-Esteem

  Developing Self-Acceptance

  Understanding that you have worth because you're human

  Appreciating that you're too complex to globally measure or rate

  Acknowledging your ever-changing nature

  Accepting your fallible nature

  Valuing your uniqueness

  Using self-acceptance to aid self-improvement

  Understanding that acceptance doesn't mean giving up

  Being Inspired to Change

  Actioning Self-Acceptance

  Self-talking your way to self-acceptance

  Following the best-friend argument

  Dealing with doubts and reservations

  Selecting the Self-Help Journey to Self-Acceptance

  Chapter 15: Cooling Down Your Anger

  Discerning the Difference between Healthy and Unhealthy Anger

  Key characteristics of unhealthy anger

  Hallmarks of healthy anger

  Assembling Attitudes That Underpin Healthy Anger

  Putting up with other people

  Forming flexible preferences

  Accepting other people as fallible human beings

  Accepting yourself

  Developing high frustration tolerance

  Pondering the pros and cons of your temper

  Imparting Your Indignation in a Healthy Way

  Asserting yourself effectively

  Coping with criticism

  Using the disarming technique

  Acting Assertively in the Workplace

  Putting your point across positively

  Remaining professional

  Dealing with Difficulties in Overcoming Anger

  Part IV

  Chapter 16: Taking a Fresh Look at Your Past

  Exploring How Your Past Can Influence Your Present

  Identifying Your Core Beliefs

  Introducing the three camps of core beliefs

  Seeing how your core beliefs interact

  Detecting Your Core Beliefs

  Following a downward arrow

  Picking up clues from your dreaming and screaming

  Tracking themes

  Filling in the blanks

  Understanding the Impact of Core Beliefs

  Spotting when you are acting according to old rules and beliefs

  Understanding that unhealthy core beliefs make you prejudiced

  Making a Formulation of Your Beliefs

  Limiting the Damage: Being Aware of Core Beliefs

  Developing Alternatives to Your Core Beliefs

  Revisiting history

  Starting from scratch

  Chapter 17: Moving New Beliefs from Your Head to Your Heart

  Defining the Beliefs You Want to Strengthen

  Acting As If You Already Believe

  Building a Portfolio of Arguments

  Generating arguments against an unhelpful belief

  Generating arguments to support your helpful alternative belief

  Understanding That Practice Makes Imperfect

  Dealing with your doubts and reservations

  Zigging and zagging through the zigzag technique

  Putting your new beliefs to the test

  Nurturing Your New Beliefs

  Chapter 18: Heading for a Healthier and Happier Life

  Planning to Prevent Relapse

  Filling In the Gaps

  Choosing absorbing activities

  Matchmaking your pursuits

  Putting personal pampering into practice

  Overhauling Your Lifestyle

  Walking the walk

  Talking the talk

  Getting intimate

  Living in Line with Your Values

  Reflecting your values through action

  Staying focused on what's most important

  Reshuffling priorities

  Chapter 19: Overcoming Obstacles to Progress

  Tackling Emotions That Get in the Way of Change

  Shifting shame

  Getting rid of guilt

  Putting aside pride

  Seeking support

  Trying a little tenderness

  Adopting Positive Principles That Promote Progress

  Understanding that simple doesn't mean easy

  Being optimistic about getting better

  Staying focused on your goals

  Persevering and repeating

  Tackling Task-Interfering Thoughts

  Chapter 20: Psychological Gardening: Maintaining Your CBT Gains

  Knowing Your Weeds from Your Flowers

  Working on Weeds

  Nipping weeds in the bud

  Spotting where weeds may grow

  Dealing with recurrent weeds

  Tending Your Flowers

  Planting new varieties

  Being a compassionate gardener

  Chapter 21: Working with the Professionals

  Procuring Professional Help

  Thinking about the right therapy for you

  Meeting the experts

  Tracking Down the Right CBT Therapist for You

  Asking yourself the right questions

  Speaking to the specialists

  Making the Most of CBT

  Discussing issues during sessions

  Being active between sessions

  Part V

  Chapter 22: Ten Healthy Attitudes for Living

  Assuming Emotional Responsibility: You Feel the Way You Think

  Thinking Flexibly

  Valuing Your Individuality

  Accepting That Life Can Be Unfair

  Understanding That Approval from Others Isn't Necessary

  Realising Love's Desirable, Not Essential

  Tolerating Short-Term Discomfort

  Enacting Enlightened Self-Interest

  Pursuing Interests and Acting Consistently with Your Values

  Tolerating Uncertainty

  Chapter 23: Ten Self-Esteem Boosters That Don't Work

  Putting Others Down

  Thinking You're Special

  Trying to Get Everyone to Like You

  Placing Yourself above Criticism

  Avoiding Failure, Disapproval, Rejection and Other Animals

  Avoiding Your Emotions

  Attempting to
Feel More Significant by Controlling Others

  Over-Defending Your Self-Worth

  Feeling Superior

  Blaming Nature or Nurture for Your Problems

  Chapter 24: Ten Ways to Lighten Up

  Accept That You Can - and Will - Make Mistakes

  Try Something New

  Stamp on Shame

  Laugh at Yourself

  Don't Take Offence So Easily

  Make Good Use of Criticism

  Settle into Social Situations

  Encourage Your Creativity to Flow

  Act Adventurously

  Enjoy Yourself: It's Later than You Think

  Chapter 25: Ten Books to Add to Your Library

  Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Workbook For Dummies

  Boosting Self-Esteem For Dummies

  Cognitive Therapy and the Emotional Disorders

  The Mindful Way Through Depression - Freeing Yourself from Chronic Unhappiness

  Flow

  Overcoming . . .

  Overcoming Anger

  Oxford Guide to Behavioural Experiments in Cognitive Therapy

  Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy

  The Cognitive Behaviour Counselling Primer

  Appendix A: CBT Resources

  Organisations in the UK and Europe

  CBT therapists

  Other therapists

  Online support

  Organisations

  Organisations in the United States

  Further Reading

  Appendix B: Forms

  The ‘Old Meaning-New Meaning' Sheet

  The Cost-Benefit Analysis Form

  The 'Tic-Toc' Sheet

  The Zigzag Form

  The Vicious Flower

  The Task Concentration Sheet

  The ABC Form I

  The ABC Form II

  The Pricing up Addiction Form

  The 'What does my addiction do for me?' Analysis Form

  Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Dummies,® 2nd Edition