Copyright 2006 Christopher Green
I recently posted an article to my website about how certain beliefs underpin stress, depression and anxiety. One of the main beliefs I briefly introduced concerns helplessness. Helplessness is a major part of these illnesses so let's look at how you can reduce the impact this flawed belief has.
Believing you are helpless in life is a truly terrible feeling and I write from personal experience here. For five years, a number of traumatic events led me to the point where I believed life held nothing but pain and anguish. I truly believed life would unfold in a way that would destroy me and there wasn't a single thing I could do about it.Perhaps you've felt this way too?
2. Listening to music is another key to overcoming depression. If you can just relax and let the type of music you love drift over you and enter your senses, you will find that you calm down and feel better. Even as babies in the womb, we respond to music. Maybe you will find you want to get up and dance and there is nothing wrong with that - even without a partner! Just move to the beat and let all your stress flow out of your fingertips and toes.
It is an awful state to be in. Furthermore, this belief simply isn't true.Let me give an example. Say you and your partner split up. Now, this can be one very traumatic experience, I've been through it, so have many others. You react in a highly negative and emotionally arousing way:
The difference between behavior therapy and cognitive therapy is that cognitive therapist spends time reviewing negative and distorted thinking, as well as self-defeating beliefs of depressed patients.According to the cognitive therapy model, thinking must change before behavior can. In a behavior therapy model such as the BA technique, a therapist tells the patient not to think too much. Simple strategies such as goal-setting, problem-solving, and attending to the task at hand become the focus, rather than on the overwhelming big picture. For many years, these two approaches have been closely linked through an approach called cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT), which purposely blends the two.
Doing productive activities will always perk you up. Think positively about your life and the things you have been given and do not dwell on the problems. Take your dog for a walk and relish in the animal's unending enjoyment at seeing you and being with you. Sometimes simple undemanding love is all we need to overcome the blue feeling.
Here's the most important fact about helplessness: There is one thing you have full control over in your life and that is how you react and assign meanings to everything you are confronted with. In the example above, a better reaction would be: "OK, my relationship hasn't worked but other things in my life are going well and I'll concentrate on them for a while as I come to terms with what's happened. Just because this relationship hasn't worked out, it doesn't mean future relationships will fail and once I've got over this, I'll get out there and find someone better."
See the difference? You're keeping control by assigning a less emotional meaning, a meaning more in keeping with reality. You're acknowledging that you're hurting, but that this is temporary and when you're ready, you'll try again. You know you have other things in your life that you can concentrate on and this reaction will prevent a feeling of helplessness arising.See you soon.
I recently posted an article to my website about how certain beliefs underpin stress, depression and anxiety. One of the main beliefs I briefly introduced concerns helplessness. Helplessness is a major part of these illnesses so let's look at how you can reduce the impact this flawed belief has.
Believing you are helpless in life is a truly terrible feeling and I write from personal experience here. For five years, a number of traumatic events led me to the point where I believed life held nothing but pain and anguish. I truly believed life would unfold in a way that would destroy me and there wasn't a single thing I could do about it.Perhaps you've felt this way too?
2. Listening to music is another key to overcoming depression. If you can just relax and let the type of music you love drift over you and enter your senses, you will find that you calm down and feel better. Even as babies in the womb, we respond to music. Maybe you will find you want to get up and dance and there is nothing wrong with that - even without a partner! Just move to the beat and let all your stress flow out of your fingertips and toes.
It is an awful state to be in. Furthermore, this belief simply isn't true.Let me give an example. Say you and your partner split up. Now, this can be one very traumatic experience, I've been through it, so have many others. You react in a highly negative and emotionally arousing way:
The difference between behavior therapy and cognitive therapy is that cognitive therapist spends time reviewing negative and distorted thinking, as well as self-defeating beliefs of depressed patients.According to the cognitive therapy model, thinking must change before behavior can. In a behavior therapy model such as the BA technique, a therapist tells the patient not to think too much. Simple strategies such as goal-setting, problem-solving, and attending to the task at hand become the focus, rather than on the overwhelming big picture. For many years, these two approaches have been closely linked through an approach called cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT), which purposely blends the two.
Doing productive activities will always perk you up. Think positively about your life and the things you have been given and do not dwell on the problems. Take your dog for a walk and relish in the animal's unending enjoyment at seeing you and being with you. Sometimes simple undemanding love is all we need to overcome the blue feeling.
Here's the most important fact about helplessness: There is one thing you have full control over in your life and that is how you react and assign meanings to everything you are confronted with. In the example above, a better reaction would be: "OK, my relationship hasn't worked but other things in my life are going well and I'll concentrate on them for a while as I come to terms with what's happened. Just because this relationship hasn't worked out, it doesn't mean future relationships will fail and once I've got over this, I'll get out there and find someone better."
See the difference? You're keeping control by assigning a less emotional meaning, a meaning more in keeping with reality. You're acknowledging that you're hurting, but that this is temporary and when you're ready, you'll try again. You know you have other things in your life that you can concentrate on and this reaction will prevent a feeling of helplessness arising.See you soon.
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