Davis: The Power of ANTs and How to Disarm it Flashcards
What are the principles of CBT?
- Problem focused
- emphasizes present w/ links to the past
- time limited
- teaches skills to change negative thought patterns
- structured and requires active homework session
What are automatic thoughts?
1 almost always negative
- over-generalizations
- distort reality
- occur spontaneously
- barely enter awareness
- believed to be true
- sometimes coexist w/ images
What is a simple cognitive model?
- Situation/event happens (Sally feels exhausted)
- Automatic thoughts about it (I’m to tired to get up, I don’t have energy, it’s no use getting out of bed)
- Reaction (emotional/behavioral response> Sadness> heaviness in body> anxiety> heart beats quickly> increased anxiety…)
What triggers ANTs?
- Stream of thoughts
- Emotion (often feel an emotion but don’t understand why)
- Behavior
- External event (spilling coffee cup)
- Sensation (heart being rapidly)
What is the unlocking question?
What were you thinking about just then?
…impt b/c triggers can spiral and lead to malaise/misery
How do you evaluate automatic negative thoughts?
- Test its validity (what is the evidence that nobody likes you)
- Look for other interpretations
- Decatastraphize the situation (worse case)
- Get distance from it (perspective taking)
- Engage in problem-solving
What common thinking errors lead to irrational thoughts?
- all or nothing
- catastrophizing
- discounting the postive
- magnifying/minimizing
- mind reading
- over-generalizing
- shoulding
- personalizing
What are rational responses to ANTs?
- Fit the facts
- Testable
- Refute ANT
- Reduce distress
- Point toward an action plan
What is a dysfunctional thought record?
A tool used for parents to take home to look at the situations that lead to ANTs and responses.
An alternative response is also recorded w/ a different outcome.
- first used to identify situations that trigger response
- *Make a link between situation, thought and emotion
What are adaptive response questions?
What is the evidence that ANT is true?
Is there an alternative explanation?
What is the worse that can happen? What is the best that can happen? What is the most likely outcome?
How does the ANT affect me?
If a friend was in this situation what would I tell him/her?
What are “core beliefs”?
Early experiences that contribute to the development of CORE beliefs about yourself, your world and others.
I am ugly, I am unwanted, I am alone, I am bad, I deserve to die, I am not worthy of a relationship are all examples of….
Core beliefs
What is often the truth about core beliefs?
- they’re thoughts, not the truth
- they can feel true but be mostly untrue
- they can be tested
- they may be rooted in childhood
- they are maintained by highly selective cognitive filters
- they can be CHANGED
