II. Three Models of Depression
III. Self-Talk
IV. Strategies for Facilitating New Ways of Thinking
V. Homework – Thought Stopping Exercise
Reframing Worksheet
VI. Relaxation Technique – Rapid Induction Technique
II. Three Models of Depression:
2. Exercise increases levels of endorphins in the body (chemical which helps fight pain and depression).
· All models can be going on at once.
· Treatments based on all of them have been demonstrated to be effective.
· Makes sense to implement the ones that fit you best and be open to trying several approaches.
When people are not sure why something is the way it is they start looking outside themselves for their unhappiness or other form of emotional distress. They have the impression that what is happening around them is what “makes” them feel the way they do. While it is likely that peoples thoughts and interpretations about a situation cause an emotional response.
Most people who engage in negative self-talk have been doing it for a long time and this internal negative self-talk often becomes a part of a person’s identity. The following is a list of common thinking distortions:
· Overgeneralization. You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.
· Mental Filter. You pick a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively to that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors the entire beaker of water.
· Disqualifying the Positive. You reject positive experiences by insisting that they don’t count for some reason or other. In this way you can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday experiences.
· Jumping into Conclusions. You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion.
A. Mind Reading - You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you, and you don’t bother to check it out.
B. The Fortune Telling Error – You anticipate that things will turn out badly, and you will feel convinced that your prediction is an already an established fact.
· Magnification, Catastrophizing, or Minimization. You exaggerate the importance of things (such as failure, falling short of the mark, or someone else’s achievement), or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny (your good and desirable qualities or someone else’s limitations).
· Emotional Reasoning. You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are, “I feel it so it must be true.” · Should Statements. You try to motivate yourself with shoulds and shouldn’ts, as if you had to be whipped and punished before you could accomplish anything. “Musts” and “oughts” also fall into this faulty-thinking category.
· 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.” Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly colored and emotional loaded.
· Personalization. You see yourself as the cause of some problem, or take on someone’s opinion as having more value than it does.
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Johnson, S. L. (1997), Therapist’s Guide to Clinical Intervention The 1-2-3’s of Treatment Planning. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.
VI. Relaxation Technique