The Way You Think May Be Detrimental To Your Mental Health Part 2- How to Change that!

Last week we discussed some common cognitive distortions that may be adding to your anxiety or depression. To get caught up, if you missed last week's blog read that first, here! Have you been able to identify some common thought errors? If you’re experiencing any of these distortions,

Here are 8 steps to stop or slow down your Cognitive Distortions:

1. Recognize and isolate the thought: Look for absolute words, like ‘always’, ‘never’, or ‘can’t’ these are usually clues you’ve got a Cognitive Distortion going on. So are really strong negative words directed at yourself like, ‘hate,’ ‘stupid’ or ‘loser.’ Try and use these words sparingly, if at all.
2. Write it down daily: Yes, take your Cognitive Distortions to pen and paper. It makes a difference. Sometimes we can more easily recognize them by writing it down.
3. Take your distress temperature: Zero to ten. Zero meaning your content and peaceful; ten that your misery is paralyzing, or you have negatives feelings about yourself.
4. Use reality thinking: ask yourself: Is it reasonable to think that thought or is it unreasonable? Say the thought out loud. If a friend said that, would you agree or disagree? If the thought is truly reasonable it probably isn’t a distortion. If the thought is mostly unreasonable it probably is a distortion. If the thought is unreasonable: Take Responsibility. 
You just need to take responsibility for whatever it is that caused the thought and the resulting bad feeling and do something about it. Either decide to take action, let it go, or both.
5. Give it a name: What kind of cognitive distortion is it? Ask yourself, is it all or nothing thinking, fortune-telling, or maybe personalization? Figure it out because chances are you have a pattern going on. Once you have the distortion labeled you will be in tune to when it happens again in a different context. 
6. Write its name down: the act of writing down your thoughts allows you to see it and find a more reasonable thought to replace the distorted one. If you can’t come up with anything, think about what your friend would say. Or what would the angel say to the cognitive distorting devil?
7. Retake your distress temperature: Even if it’s just a few degrees lower, from a 9 to a 7, say, you are going in the right direction, and that’s a good thing.
8. Repeat as needed: review the steps above and repeat any steps for more stubborn thoughts.

Do not expect to ever be completely free from Cognitive Distortions. That would be unreasonable (Ha Ha :-))
However, the more you do these exercises the easier rescuing your mood, and lowering your distress level will become. If you continue to have these thoughts and you can’t make them go away on your own, give me a call and we can work on them together.

The Way You Think May Be Detrimental To Your Mental Health

Every single thought we have sends neurotransmitters through our brain. For every positive thought we have like, “For every problem, there is a solution.” Or “I’m happy that you got a good grade on your test.” We feel emotionally content, happy, and overall good. When we think negative thoughts, we experience a down feeling of sadness or a blah feeling. If the negative thought persists, we can become depressed or anxious. But sometimes these negative thoughts are wrong or misinterpreted by our brain. Those types of thoughts are called Cognitive distortions. These negative thoughts tend to be exaggerated, irrational, and often lack facts. Cognitive distortions are errors in thinking, they cause us to perceive reality inaccurately. These negative thoughts patterns reinforce negative emotions and feelings. We all use cognitive distortions from time to time, but we use them all the time they can contribute to depression and anxiety according to a study by (Burns, Shaw, & Croker, 1987).

Below are some examples of errors in thinking:Disqualifying the positive: You reject positive experiences by insisting they don’t count for some reason or another. In this way, you can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday experiences.
Jumping to Conclusions: You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusions. Jumping to conclusions can also be interpreted as mind-reading, you arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you, and you don’t bother to check this out. Do you become victim to “Fortune Teller error”, you anticipated that things will turn out badly, and you feel convinced that your prediction is right and is established in facts.
Magnification or Minimization: You exaggerate the importance of things ( such as your goof-up or someone else’s accomplishment) or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny ( your own desirable qualities or the other fellow’s imperfections.) this is also called “binoculars tricks”.
Should Statements: You try to motivate yourself with should and shouldn’t, as if you had to be whipped and punched before you could be expected to do anything. “Musts” and “ought’s” are also offenders. The emotional consequence is guilt. When you direct share statements towards others, you feel angry, frustration, and resentment.
Labeling and Mislabeling: this is an extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing your error, you attach a negative label to yourself. “I am a loser. “When you direct “should statements” toward others, as “you should always tell that person no, she is a loser.” Another example is when someone else’s behavior rubs you the wrong way, you attach a negative label to them: “He’s a damn
louse” or “He’s such a jerk”. Mislabeling involves describing the event with language that is highly colored and emotionally loaded.

Have you been able to identify some of these distortions in yourself? Come back for next week's blog where we will talk all about the 8 simple steps to stop or slow down these Cognitive Distortions.

5 Easy Depression Buster

Depression is often defined as a feeling of hopelessness, loss of energy that nothing matters or you’re not good enough.  For people that suffer mild depression engaging in the activities listed can help renew your energy and lift your spirits.

Even a simple walk can help with depression

Top 5  Easy Depression Busters:

1.      Take a walk even as little as 10 minutes as been shown to increase one’s mood. Aim for 30 minutes every day.  Do have time? The good news is the minutes can add up so take three 10 minute breaks if you just can’t fit it all in at once.

2.      Watch a comedy. Laughter release endorphins in the brain that make you feel good and provide sense of wellbeing. Laughter also reduces stress and can even increase your immune system. Laughter also adds happiness and joy to our lives.

3.      Get enough sleep. Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep a night. Sleep effects everything in our lives, it regulates hormone production, provides us with mental alertness, emotional balance and creativity.  Sleep is restorative to the body and helps with repairing cell damaged caused during the day.

4.      Spend time with friends and loved ones. Social interactions help us live longer and happier lives. Telling your best friend about your day reduces the stress hormones and promotes feelings of being supported and understood.

5.      Get a little light, sunlight that is. Sunlight is essential to a healthy lifestyle. Not enough can make the depression worse. We needs a little each day. So take your walk outside, enjoy a lunch with a friend in the garden a little goes a long way.

This may sound simple but little changes really do add up. Our body and mind are meant to move and the movement adds with hormones that make our bodies happier. Try the about for at least a two weeks and let us know what helped you.