Irrational Thoughts or beliefs are those thoughts that are not real and cause us anguish and discomfort. They are thoughts within us that make us act in a certain way.
Therefore, it could be said that we contribute to our stress because we will feel one way or another depending on how we evaluate what happens to us. That is to say. It is not the events that generate anguish in us. It is we who generate it with our way of evaluating them.
Therefore, it would make sense that one of the techniques that can be used to deal with anxiety attacks, cognitive distortions, etc., demonstrates the irrationality of fears. When this happens and irrational thoughts surface, you must convince yourself that your opinion is not genuine.
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ABC Technique to Combat Irrational Thoughts
This technique is based on showing that the beliefs we have are irrational. To do this, we have to make a table in which we detail the following by columns:
A: The event
B: The Evaluation we make of what has happened
C: Emotion that generates us and what we do
Let’s take an example:
To: Event B: Evaluation C: Emotion
Irrational We fall on the street. Everyone is looking at me. I am a very clumsy person; what a disaster Discomfort, shame, and anxiety
Rational We fall on the street. It can happen to anyone, Upset
We can see that the same event (we fall in the road) can generate very negative emotions (discomfort, shame, anxiety) or simply negative ones (annoyance). The only difference between the two is the person’s assessment of the event.
So when something like this happens to us, we need to put into practice the following technique: the ABCDE technique. In this situation, the columns of the table would be as follows:
A: The event
B: We evaluate what happened
C: Emotion that generates us and what we do
D: Question irrational thoughts
New Rational Thinking, take an Example:
To: Event B: Evaluation C: Emotion D: questioning E: New thought
We went out in dirty shirts. Everyone is looking at me. They think I’m a messy person with Discomfort, anguish, and anxiety. Who is watching you? No one is looking at your shirt. There are more people on the street. Also, they may be looking at how handsome you look Indifference
As you can see, the most important thing to create a new thought is the D: the questioning, the debate, or the dispute of our thinking. We have to question ourselves to make a more rational thought. In that case, it may be that people are not looking at us or that if they look at us, it is for something else that has nothing to do with having a small stain on the shirt. Wearing a stain on the shirt is something that could happen to everyone.
Why a Belief can be Irrational
Our way of reflecting or interpreting seems objective, but it is not since the brain can apply any scheme to analyze the environment, sometimes pathologically or randomly.
People have thoughts linked to or a product of their personality and develop cognitive schemes through education, culture, religion, experiences, etc. When interpreting a situation, these mental patterns or these values learned throughout life are activated.
Believing our thoughts or values can generate negative consequences, such as emotional disturbances, conflicts in relationships, or situations where misinterpretations may create conflicts.
A simple example that helps to understand a poorly or correctly focused situation: not being able to finish a job, one thinks: “I am incompetent,” one feels sad ( emotion ) and says to go home instead of going to the movies (behaviour). The next day he goes to work reluctantly. On the other hand, another worker thinks, “Today I had a difficult day, I’ll finish it tomorrow (thought) “I relax and go to the gym (behaviour). The next day he goes to work motivated and in good spirits.
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