Political Science and Theory: Feeling Good

Feeling Good - David Burns

https://feelinggood.com/

The Book in One Sentence

You can change your moods by learning how to restructure your negative thoughts.

The Five Big Ideas

1. Your moods are created by your thoughts.
2. Thoughts that are dominated by pervasive negativity cause depression.
3. The negative thoughts which cause depression nearly always contain gross, cognitive distortions.
4. There are 10 cognitive distortions that twist your thinking.
5. The most usual mental distortion to look out for when you are feeling worthless is all-or-nothing thinking.

Feeling Good Summary

Cognitive therapy is founded on three principles:

1. Your moods are created by your “cognitions,” or thoughts.” A cognition refers to the way you look at things— your perceptions, mental attitudes, and beliefs. It includes the way you interpret things— what you say about something or someone to yourself.
2. You feel the way you do right now because of the thoughts you are thinking at this moment.
3. When you are feeling depressed, your thoughts are dominated by pervasive negativity.

The negative thoughts which cause your emotional turmoil nearly always contain gross distortions. Although these thoughts appear valid, they are irrational or just plain wrong, and that twisted thinking is a major cause of your suffering.
“Every bad feeling you have is the result of distorted negative thinking. Illogical pessimistic attitudes play the central role in the development and continuation of all your symptoms.”
“Every time you feel depressed about something, try to identify a corresponding negative thought you had just prior to and during the depression. Why? Because these thoughts have actually created your bad mood, by learning to restructure them, you can change your mood.”
“Your emotions result entirely from the way you look at things.”

The Relationship Between The World and The Way You Feel

Cognitive Distortions

All-or-Nothing Thinking. You evaluate your personal qualities in extreme, black-or-white categories. All-or-nothing thinking forms the basis for perfectionism. It causes you to fear any mistake or imperfection because you will then see yourself as a complete loser. This makes you feel inadequate and worthless. The technical name for this type of perceptual error is “dichotomous thinking.”

Overgeneralization. You arbitrarily conclude that one thing that happened to you once will occur over and over again. The pain of rejection is generated almost entirely from overgeneralization.

Mental Filter. You pick out a negative detail in any situation and dwell on it exclusively, thus perceiving that the whole situation is negative. When you are depressed, you wear a pair of eyeglasses with special lenses that filter out anything positive. All that you allow to enter your conscious mind is negative. Because you are not aware of this “filtering process,” you conclude that everything is negative. The technical name for this process is “selective abstraction.” It is a bad habit that can cause you to suffer much needless anguish.

Disqualifying the Positive. You transform neutral or even positive experiences into negative ones. Burns calls this, “reverse alchemy.” Disqualifying the positive is one of the most destructive forms of cognitive distortion.

Jumping to Conclusions. When you jump to conclusions, you arbitrarily jump to a negative conclusion that is not justified by the facts of the situation. Two examples of jumping to conclusion are “mind reading” and “the fortune teller error.”
- Mind Reading. You assume that other people look down on you, and you’re so convinced about this that you don’t even bother to check it out.
- Fortune Telling. You imagine something bad is about to happen, and take this prediction as a fact even though it is unrealistic.

Magnification and Minimization. When you magnify, you look at your errors, fears, or imperfections and exaggerate their importance. This has also been called “catastrophizing” because you turn commonplace negative events into nightmarish monsters. When you minimize, you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny such as your own desirable qualities or others’ imperfections. This is also called the “binocular trick”.

Emotional Reasoning. You take your emotions as evidence for the truth. Your logic: “I feel like a dud, therefore I am a dud.” This kind of reasoning is misleading because your feelings reflect your thoughts and beliefs.

Should Statements. You try to motivate yourself by saying, “I should do this” or “I must do that.”

Labeling and Mislabeling. Labeling refers to your tendency to create a completely negative self-image based on your errors. Mislabeling refers to your tendency to describe an event with words that are inaccurate and emotionally heavily loaded.

Personalization. You assume responsibility for a negative event when there is no basis for doing so.

…..

“Your thoughts create your emotions; therefore, your emotions cannot prove that your thoughts are accurate.”

Dr. Aaron Beck said a depressed self-image can be characterized by the four D’s:

Defeat
Defection
Desertion
Deprivation

“Only your own sense of self-worth determines how you feel.”

“The most usual mental distortion to look out for when you are feeling worthless is all-or-nothing thinking.”

How to Boost Self-Esteem

1. Talk Back to That Internal Critic

Train yourself to recognize and write down the self-critical thoughts as they go through your mind;

Learn why these thoughts are distorted; and
Practice talking back to them so as to develop a more realistic self-evaluation system.
2. Use “The Triple-Column Technique”
“When you have a negative thought, ask yourself, “What thoughts are going through my mind right now? What am I saying to myself? Why is this upsetting me?”

3. Use Mental Biofeedback

“Monitor your negative thoughts with a wrist counter. Click the button each time a negative thought crosses your mind. Then, at the end of the day, note your daily score and write it down in a log book.”

Notes Cont.

“When you are down on yourself, ask what you actually mean when you try to define your true identity with a negative label such as ‘a fool,’ ‘a sham,’ ‘a stupid dope,’ etc.”

“Once you begin to pick destructive labels apart, you will find they are arbitrary and meaningless. They actually cloud the issue, creating confusion and despair. Once rid of them, you can define and cope with any real problems that exist.”

When you are upset:

Zero in on those automatic negative thoughts and write them down;
Read over the list of ten cognitive distortions. Learn precisely how you are twisting things and blowing them out of proportion; and substitute a more objective thought that puts the lie to the one which made you look down on yourself.

“Your feelings result from the meaning you give to the event, not from the event itself.”

Editor’s Note

Burns quotes Stoic philosopher Epictetus at the beginning of the book: “Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of things.”

To learn more about Epictetus, and in particular, Stoicism, I recommend reading, A Guide to The Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy by William B. Irvine.

“Irrational should statements rest on your assumption that you are entitled to instant gratification at all times.”

The following two guidelines will help you to determine when your anger is productive and when it is not.

Is my anger directed toward someone who has knowingly, intentionally, and unnecessarily acted in a hurtful manner?
Is my anger useful? Does it help me achieve a desired goal or does it simply defeat me?

“If you have a ‘should’ or ‘shouldn’t’ rule that has been causing you disappointment and frustration, rewrite it in more realistic terms.

Replace ‘should’ with ‘it would be nice if.’”

“You’re not entitled to get what you want just because you want it.”

“Remorse or regret are aimed at behavior, whereas guilt is targeted toward the ‘self.’”

“Sadness is a normal emotion created by realistic perceptions that describe a negative event involving loss or disappointment in an undistorted way. Depression is an illness that always results from thoughts that are distorted in some way.”

“When a genuinely negative event occurs, your emotions will be created exclusively by your thoughts and perceptions. Your feelings will result from the meaning you attach to what happens. A substantial portion of your suffering will be due to the distortions in your thoughts. When you eliminate these distortions, you will find that coping with the ‘real problem’ will become less painful.”

“Although your distorted negative thoughts will be substantially reduced or entirely eliminated after you have recovered from a bout of depression, there are certain ‘silent assumptions’ that probably still lurk in your mind. These silent assumptions explain in large part why you became depressed in the first place and can help you predict when you might again be vulnerable.”

“A silent assumption is an equation with which you define your personal worth. It represents your value system, your personal philosophy, the stuff on which you base your self-esteem.”

If you feel moody, choose an activity, and instead of aiming for 100 percent, try for 80 percent, 60 percent, or 40 percent. Then see how much you enjoy the activity and how productive you become.

“You are wrong in your belief that suicide is the only solution or the best solution to your problem.”

“When you think that you are trapped and hopeless, your thinking is illogical, distorted, and skewed.”

“Nearly all suicidal patients have in common an illogical sense of hopelessness and the conviction they are facing an insoluble dilemma. Once you expose the distortions in your thinking, you will experience considerable emotional relief.”

“Your feelings of hopelessness and total despair are just symptoms of depressive illness, not facts.”
Burns lets the following rule of thumb guide him: People who feel hopeless neveractually are hopeless.

Book Summary: Feeling Good by David D. Burns

https://www.samuelthomasdavies.com/book-summaries/self-help/feeling-good/

………………

CHECKLIST OF COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS

1. | All or nothing thinking: You look at things in absolute, black and white categories.

You see things in black-or-white categories.

If a situation falls short of perfect, you see it

as a total failure. When a young woman on

a diet ate a spoonful of ice cream, she told

herself, “I’ve blown my diet completely.”

This thought upset her so much that she

gobbled down an entire quart of ice cream!

2. | Overgeneralization: You view a negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.

You see a single negative event, such as a

romantic rejection or a career reversal, as a

never-ending pattern of defeat by using

words such as “always” or “never” when

you think about it. A depressed salesman

became terribly upset when he noticed bird

dung on the windshield of his car. He told

himself, “Just my luck! Birds are always

crapping on my car!”

3. | Mental Filter: You dwell on the negatives and ignore the positives.

You pick out a single negative detail and

dwell on it exclusively so that your vision of

all of reality becomes darkened, like the

drop of ink that discolors a beaker of water.

Example: You receive many positive

comments about your presentation to a

group of associates at work, but one of

them says something mildly critical. You

obsess about his reaction for days and

ignore all the positive feedback.

4. | Discounting the positives: You insist that your accomplishments or positive qualities “don’t count.”

You reject positive experiences by insisting

they “don’t count.” If you do a good job,

you may tell yourself that it wasn’t good

enough or that anyone could have done as

well. Discounting the positive takes the joy

out of life and makes you feel inadequate

and unrewarded.

5. | Jumping to conclusions: (A) Mind reading - you assume that people are reacting negatively to you when there’s no definite evidence for this; (B) Fortune Telling - you arbitrarily predict things will turn out badly.

You interpret things negatively when there

are no facts to support your conclusion.

Mind reading: Without checking it out, you

arbitrarily conclude that someone is

reacting negatively to you.

Fortune-telling: You predict that things

will turn out badly. Before a test you may

tell yourself, “I’m really going to blow it.

What if I flunk?” If you’re depressed you

may tell yourself, “I'll never get better.”

6. | Magnification or Minimization: You blow things way out of proportion or you shrink their importance inappropriately.

You exaggerate the importance of your

problems and shortcomings, or you

minimize the importance of your desirable

qualities. This is also called the “binocular

trick.”

7. | Emotional Reasoning: You reason from how you feel: “I feel like an idiot, so I really must be one.” Or “I don’t feel like doing this, so I'll put it off.”

You assume that your negative emotions

necessarily reflect the way things really

are: “I feel terrified about going on

airplanes. It must be very dangerous to

fly.” Or “I feel guilty. I must be a rotten

person.” Or “I feel angry. This proves I’m

being treated unfairly.” Or “I feel so

inferior. This means I’m a second-rate

person.” Or “I feel hopeless. I must really

be hopeless.”

8. | “Should Statements”: You criticize yourself or other people with “Shoulds” or “Shouldn’ts.” “Musts,” “Oughts,” “Have tos” are similar offenders.

You tell yourself that things should be the

way you hoped or expected them to be.

After playing a difficult piece on the piano,

a gifted pianist told herself, “I shouldn’t

have made so many mistakes.” This made

her feel so disgusted that she quit

practicing for several days. “Musts,”

“oughts” and “have tos” are similar

offenders.

“Should statements” that are directed

against yourself lead to guilt and

frustration. Should statements that are

directed against other people or the world

in general lead to anger and frustration:

“He shouldn't be so stubborn and

argumentative.”

Many people try to motivate themselves

with shoulds and shouldn’ts, as if they were

delinquents who had to be punished before

they could be expected to do anything. “I

shouldn’t eat that doughnut.” This usually

doesn’t work because all these shoulds and

musts make you feel rebellious and you get

the urge to do just the opposite. Dr. Albert

Ellis has called this musterbation.” | call it

the “shouldy” approach to life.

9. | Labeling: You identify with your shortcomings. Instead of saying, “I made a mistake,” you tell yourself, “I’m a jerk,” or “a fool, or “a loser.”

Labeling is an extreme form of all-or-

nothing thinking. Instead of saying “I made

a mistake,” you attach a negative label to

yourself: “I’m a loser.” You might also label

yourself “a fool” or “a failure” or “a jerk.”

Labeling is quite irrational because you are

not the same as what you do. Human

beings exist, but “fools,” “losers,” and

“jerks” do not. These labels are just useless

abstractions that lead to anger, anxiety,

frustration, and low self-esteem.

You may also label others. When

someone does something that rubs you the

wrong way, you may tell yourself: “He’s an

S.0.B.” Then you feel that the problem is

with that person’s “character” or “essence”

instead of with their thinking or behavior.

You see them as totally bad. This makes

you feel hostile and hopeless about

improving things and leaves little room for

constructive communication.

10. | Personalization and Blame: You blame yourself for something you weren't entirely responsible for, or you blame other people and overlook ways that your own attitudes and behavior might contribute to a problem.

Personalization occurs when you hold

yourself personally responsible for an

event that isn’t entirely under your control.

When a woman received a note that her

child was having difficulties at school, she

told herself, “This shows what a bad

mother I am,” instead of trying to pinpoint

the cause of the problem so that she could

be helpful to her child. When another

woman’s husband beat her, she told herself,

“If only I were better in bed, he wouldn’t

beat me.” Personalization leads to guilt,

shame, and feelings of inadequacy.

Some people do the opposite. They

blame other people or their circumstances

for their problems, and they overlook ways

that they might be contributing to the

problem: “The reason my matriage is so

lousy is because my spouse is totally

unreasonable.” Blame usually doesn’t work

very well because other people will resent

being scapegoated and they will just toss

the blame right back in your lap. It’s like

the game of hot potato - no one wants to

get stuck with it.

…….

TEN WAYS TO UNTWIST YOUR THINKING

1. Identify the Distortion

Write down your negative thoughts so you can see which of the

ten cognitive distortions you're involved in. This will make it

easier to think about the problem in a more positive and realistic

way.

2. Examine the Evidence

Instead of assuming that your negative thought is true, examine

the actual evidence for it. For example, if you feel that you never

do anything right, you could list several things you have done

successfully.

3. The Double-Standard Method

Instead of putting yourself down in a harsh, condemning way,

talk to yourself in the same compassionate way you would talk to

a friend with a similar problem.

4. The Experimental Technique

Do an experiment to test the validity of your negative thought.

For example, if, during the episode of panic, you become terrified

that you're about to die of a heart attack, you could jog or run up

and down several flights of stairs. This will prove that your heart

is healthy and strong.

5. Thinking in Shades of Grey

Although this method might sound drab, the effects can be

illuminating. Instead of thinking about your problems in all-or-

nothing extremes, evaluate things on a range of 0 to 100. When

things don’t work out as well as you hoped, think about the

experience as a partial success rather than a complete failure.

See what you can learn from the situation.

6. The Survey Method

Ask people questions to find out if your thoughts and attitudes

are realistic. For example, if you believe that public speaking

anxiety is abnormal and shameful, ask several friends if they ever

felt nervous before they gave a talk.

7. Define Terms

When you label yourself “inferior” or “a fool” or “a loser,” ask,

“What is the definition of a ‘fool’?” You will feel better when you

see that there is no such thing as a “fool” or a “loser.”

8. The Semantic Method

Simply substitute language that is less colorful and emotionally

loaded. This method is helpful for “should statements.” Instead

of telling yourself “I shouldn’t have made that mistake,” you can

say, “It would be better if I hadn’t made that mistake.”

9. Re-attribution

Instead of automatically assuming that you are “bad” and blaming

yourself entirely for a problem, think about the many factors that

may have contributed to it. Focus on solving the problem instead

of using up all your energy blaming yourself and feeling guilty.

10. Cost-Benefit Analysis

List the advantages and disadvantages of a feeling (like getting

angry when your plane is late), a negative thought (like “No

matter how hard I try, I always screw up”), or a behavior pattern

(like overeating and lying around in bed when you're depressed).

You can also use the Cost-Benefit Analysis to modify a self-

defeating belief such as, “I must always try to be perfect.”

WAYS TO CHALLENGE AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS

1. Indentify the Distortion

2. Examine the Evidence

3. The Double-Standard Method

4. The Experimental Technique

5. Thinking in Shades of Gray

6. The Feared Fantasy Technique

7. The Vertical Arrow Technique

8. Cost-Benefit Analysis

9. Define Terms

10. The Survey Method

AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS:

“I’m inferior to all these other men who have such better physiques. If I took my shirt off, everyone would stare at me and think I was abnormal.”

David, Burns D. The Feeling Good Handbook. New York: Plume, 1999. Print.

YOUR THOUGHTS AND FEELINGS

1. Sadness or Depression

Loss, a romantic rejection, the death of a loved

one, the loss of a job, or the failure to achieve an

important personal goal.

2. Guilt or Shame

You believe that you’ve hurt someone or that

you've failed to live up to your own moral

standards. Guilt results from self-condemnation,

where as shame involves fear that you'll lose face

when others find out about who you really are.

3. Anger, Irritation, Annoyance, or Resentment

You feel that someone is treating you unfairly or

trying to take advantage of you.

4. Frustration

Life falls short of your expectations. You insist

that things should be different. It might be your

own performance (“I shouldn’t have made that

mistake”), what someone else does (“He should’ve

been on time!”), or an event (“Why does the traffic

always slow down when I’m in a hurry?”).

5. Anxiety, Worry, Fear, Nervousness or Panic

You believe you're in danger because you think

something bad is about to happen. “What if the

plane crashes? What if my mind goes blank when

I give my talk in front of all those people? What if

this chest pain is the start of a heart attack?”

6. Inferiority or Inadequacy

You compare yourself to others and conclude that

youre not as good as they are because you're not

as talented, attractive, charming, successful,

intelligent. “She’s really got what it takes. She’s so

cute. All the men are chasing her. I’m just

average. There’s nothing very special about me.’

7. Loneliness

You tell yourself that you’re bound to feel

unhappy because you're alone and you aren’t

getting enough love and attention from others.

8. Hopelessness or Discouragement

You feel convinced that your problems will go on

forever and that things will never improve. “I'll

never get over this depression,” or “I just can’t

lose weight and keep it off,” or “I'll never find a

good job,” or “I'll be alone forever.”