Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Quotes

Evil is to be found not within things, but in the value judgements which people bring to bear upon things. People can therefore be cured of their ills only if they are persuaded to change their value judgements,

...patient evidence has repeatedly found that cognitive behaviour therapy is ineffective and graded exercise therapy can make the condition worse.

Mindfulness is the art of being present in the moment, without passing judgement about your experience.

Therapy that is focused on battling “irrational beliefs,” such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), doesn’t work as well on Autistic people as it does on neurotypicals. One reason for that is many of the fears and inhibitions of Autistic people are often entirely reasonable, and rooted in a lifetime of painful experiences. We tend to be pretty rational people, and many of us are already inclined to analyze our thoughts and feelings very closely (sometimes excessively so). Autistics don’t need cognitive behavioral training to help us not be ruled by our emotions. In fact, most of us have been browbeaten into ignoring our feelings too much.

You don't actually want to do this; it's just an invasive. Everyone has them. But you can't shut yours up. Since you've had a reasonable amount of cognitive behavioural therapy, you tell yourself, I am not my thoughts, even though deep down you're not sure what exactly that makes you.Then you tell yourself to click a little x in the top corner of the thought to make it go away. And maybe it does for a moment; you're back in your house, on the couch, next to your mom, and then your brain says, Well, but wait.

Trying to solve an emotional problem at the same time as calling yourself useless, worthless and pathetic is much like trying to learn a foreign language while hitting yourself over the head with a textbook - your actions are likely to make both jobs much harder.

Imagine you’re diagnosed with epilepsy: what would you think if you weren’t referred to a specialist but taken to a psychiatrist to treat you for your ‘false illness beliefs’? This is what happens to Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) patients in the UK. They are told to ignore their symptoms, view themselves as healthy, and increase their exercise. The NHS guidelines amalgamate ME and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, assuming symptoms are caused by deconditioning and ‘exercise phobia’. Sufferers are offered Graded Exercise to increase fitness, and Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) to rid them of their ‘false illness beliefs’.

The psychological view of ME led to the controversial and now debunked PACE trial—PACE is “Pacing, graded Activity, and Cognitive behaviour therapy; a randomised Evaluation”... As the trial progressed and the results did not meet the authors’ expectations, they simply lowered the threshold to define improvement. In some cases, those whose condition had deteriorated were classed as “recovered”. That is simply not good science.

What is referred to as the cognitive revolution in the sciences has gone through several phases. The first phase was marked by the work of Ivan Pavlov, and later by J.B. Watson, who considered psychology to be the science of behaviour, and whose focus was on ‘visibles’, ‘audibles’ and ‘tangibles’. Later, B.F. Skinner asserted that the mind does not exist, and psychology was concerned merely with behaviour dispositions. Mental events were not visible and objective evidence was available only in the realm of publicly observable behaviour. Though the psychologist William James was interested in the study of consciousness, the domination of behavioural psychology meant that it was assumed that such a project did not have any scientific respectability.

The Pathe & Mullen (1997) sample almost unanimously reported deterioration in mental and physical well-being as a consequence of the harassment. (..) These victims often described a preoccupation with their stalker, one commenting: "I think I’ve become as obsessed as the stalker himself". (..) Whenever stalking victims present it is essential to assess their suicide potential and continue to monitor this. (..) Victims of stalking often respond to cognitive-orientated psychological therapies because stalking breaches previously held assumptions about their safety. The belief of victims in their strength and resilience and their confidence in the reasonable and predictable nature of the world are frequently shattered, to be replaced with feelings of extreme vulnerability and an expectation of pervasive danger and unpredictable harm. Cognitive therapies attempt to restructure these morbid perceptions of the world that threaten the victim’s adaptation and functioning. (..) Avoidance can respond to behavioural therapies such as prolonged exposure and stress inoculation, which aim to assist victims to gradually resume abandoned activities and manage the associated anxiety.

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The Medical Research Council’s PACE Trial of behavioural interventions for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome / Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) attracted considerable opposition from the outset and the Principal Investigators had difficulty in recruiting a sufficient number of participants. PACE is the acronym for Pacing, Activity, and Cognitive behavioural therapy, a randomised Evaluation, interventions that, according to one of the Principal Investigators, are without theoretical foundation. The MRC’s PACE Trial seemingly inhabits a unique and unenviable position in the history of medicine. It is believed to be the first and only clinical trial that patients and the charities that support them have tried to stop before a single patient could be recruited and is the only clinical trial that the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) has ever funded.

Those who speak of their anger, their mistrust, or their dislike of certain groups tend not to see any contradiction in this behaviour and their claims to be moral, professional, or effective psychologists.

The treatments for chronic pain come from several disciplines. Traditional analgesics may have only a marginal effect, but many other drugs have been found to be useful, including the anticonvulsants carbamazepine and gabapentin, the antidepressant amitriptyline, the hormone calcitonin, and the fiery extract of chilli pepper, capsaicin. Other interventions include nerve blocks, and even implantable devices such as spinal cord stimulators. These are supported by psychological treatments such as cognitive behavioural therapy.

Any social media application or platform should have a psychology test when signing up for a new account. That will detect people who are dangerous and who might have an influence to make others dangerous. People who will use social media for bad ,evil and wrong intentions. People who are not mental stable. Also people who can be easily influenced by bad advices. Then run an algorithm on which information those people can see. Put a disclaimer on some accounts of those who have a bipolar disorder or who are psychopath.

Crucially, this exercise is not about all the problems we face and the pleasant or painful emotions we encounter each day. It is about the meaning we find in both the toughest and easiest days. It does not ask us to wait until everything is fine before we start living as the kind of person we want to be. It gets us thinking about how we can consciously choose to live by our values, whatever is going on around us.

We are often sold the idea that happiness is the norm and anything outside of that could be a mental health problem.

But the wise person, although affected superficially and briefly in colour and expression “does not assent”, but keeps this consistency and firmness of judgement which he has always had about things that look like this to the mind, namely that they are not proper objects of fear at all, but that they frighten with a false face and empty terror.

Understanding does not create emotional change.

The point about positive thinking, and later cognitive behavioural therapy, was that you could choose how you thought about life, and that how you thought about it changed not only your interpretation of what happened, but also the actual course of events.

Epictetus compares the mind to a bottle of water with a ray of light shining through it, representing our perception of external events. If the water is shaken, the light is refracted and disturbed. Likewise, when our mind, judgements, and perceptions are

Rochelle Watts is a counsellor in Australia, Thailand, Spain and the UK. She offering Psychotherapy, Cognitive behaviour therapy, Couple Counselling, Drug & Alcohol and Trauma Counselling. I have specialised training in Supervision, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behaviour Therapy.

A self-soothing box is something you prepare in advance, when you are able to think through what most helps in times of distress. Grab an old shoe box and fill it with anything that could help to soothe you when you are in distress. As described above, anything that you associate with feelings of safety and comfort is great to include.

So, what can we do to stop the rumination that feeds painful emotion? When trying to change something in the moment, purely using a mental concept in our heads to re-focus on something new can be hugely difficult. I have seen many people use an active approach to good effect. When you notice that you are sliding down the slippery slope of rumination, try a firm hand pushed out in front and one word, ‘Stop!’, quickly followed by physical movement, such as standing up and moving away from the position you are in. Change activity for a moment, or even just walk around or step outside for a few minutes, whatever is possible at the time. Physically moving your body can help to shift your mind when it is otherwise very difficult.

The act of getting those thoughts and feelings out on to the page can help to unravel some of what is going on in your mind and body. It is through the processing of those painful feelings that the work of grieving is done.

A simple shift of language can help us turn towards gratitude. For example, try switching ‘I have to …’ with ‘I get to …

When we are working on long-term goals and making changes that we want to maintain, we have to learn to counter-balance the stress of effort with the replenishment of rest. We don’t need to always be working or always feel energized and refreshed. We need to be able to listen to the body and step back from effort so that we are ready to drive forward once again.

Here are a few tips on how to establish a new habit: Make the new behaviour as easy as possible to do, especially in moments when you might not feel like taking action.

Spend time imagining your future. When we create a vivid image of ourselves in the future, the easier it becomes to make choices in the here and now that will benefit your future

Emotions are real and valid, but they are not facts. They are a guess.

Write down all the potential hurdles that could cause you to get off track. For each hurdle, make a plan of action about how you will prevent those hurdles from causing you to get off track or give up on your goals.

It’s called metacognition, which is a fancy name for thoughts about your thoughts. We have this ability to think. But we also have the ability to think about what we are thinking. Metacognition is the process of stepping back from the thoughts and getting enough distance to allow us to see those thoughts for what they really are. When you do this, they lose some of their power over you and how you feel and behave. You get to choose how you respond to them rather than feeling controlled and driven by something. Metacognition sounds complicated but it is simply the process of noticing which thoughts pop into your head and observing how they make you feel. You can have a go by pausing for a few minutes and noticing where your mind wanders to. Notice how you can choose to focus in on a thought, like Stanley putting the mask over his face, or you can let it pass and wait for the next thought to arrive. The power of any thought is in how much we buy into it. How much we believe it to be true and meaningful. When we observe our own thought processes in this way, we start to see thoughts for what they are, and what they are not. Thoughts are not facts. They are a mix of opinions, judgements, stories, memories, theories, interpretations, and predictions about the future. They are ideas offered up by your brain about ways we could make sense of the world. But the brain has limited information to go on.

Thoughts are not facts. They are suggestions offered up to us by the brain to help us make sense of the world. The power of any thought is in how much we believe it to be the only truth. Taking power out of those thoughts starts with stepping back, getting some distance (metacognition) and seeing them for what they are.

Anger is there to agitate us to move and make something happen.

If you often feel at a loss for words when trying to describe how you feel, and need help to build up your emotional vocabulary, the Feeling Wheel (Willcox, 1982) is a great resource that is often used in therapy for exactly this purpose.

If there is something emotions are pretty useful for, it’s telling you what you need. When we allow ourselves to feel emotion without blocking it out or pushing it away, we can turn towards it with curiosity, and learn.

We also need to make use of small rewards as we work on big goals. When we break down big challenges into smaller tasks and reward ourselves for reaching those milestones, we get the benefits of small dopamine hits along the way. Dopamine not only gives us a little ‘buzz’ that feels rewarding, it also drives us to look ahead to the next milestone and motivates us to keeping driving forward.

Gratitude practice is another simple way to get used to turning your attention. Find a small notebook and, once a day, write down three things that you feel grateful for.

Choose to take care of your Mental health. Crazy people are considered to be normal these days. We have lot of people who are facing mental breakdown and psychological problems. Because we live in a crazy world these days. Everyone who is crazy is considered normal and normal people considered crazy. That is why we end up with the messed-up society, community, and world.

Also, this is important because low intensity materials are often focused on particular problems, so working on the wrong thing might mean that the real problem is ignored.

Those with insomnia need not be penalised. Rather, this method of routine sleep tracking would help them identify this issue and cognitive behavioural therapy could be provided through their smart phones. Insomnia treatment could be incentivised with the same credit benefits, further improving individual health and productivity, creativity and business success.

The core message here is that our moral and ethical principles can overcome our fear of compassion and guide us to compassionate actions. I am reminded of this time and time again in therapy. There are moments when patients reveal things that they are ashamed of, things that society stigmatises. But as a therapist, if I am going to engage in compassionate help with this patient, I need to override my emotional response and recognise that this person needs connection. This is liberating, and leads to questions like, 'What happened in this person’s life that led them to be violent towards a stranger?' It is a cognitive process that takes training, but it enables me to stay present so I can be an agent of therapeutic change. There is a saying in trauma and forensic literature that 'hurt people tend to hurt people'. What is paramount here is to recognise that the patient, the person, wants to change, and I want to help them with that, to try to stop the hurt. Shaming and punishing are not effective motivators and encouragers to positive behaviour change. Compassion offers a completely different opportunity.

Tim Kasser: ‘The heyday of humanistic psychology was in the 1960s and 1970s, when Keynes dominated. But since the rise of neo-liberalism from the 1980s, we’ve seen an influx of cognitive behavioural approaches and psychiatric drugs – technologies that put the cause of the problem right between your ears. The therapies our governments now want all focus on internal not external reform. They don’t see suffering as a call to change external circumstances for the good of our development.

While choice is infinite, our lives have time spans. We can't live every life. We can't watch every film or read every book or visit every single place on this sweet earth. Rather than being blocked by it, we need to edit the choice in front of us. We need to find out what is good for us, and leave the rest.

Cognitive behavioural therapy for carbohydrate addicts begins with abstinence (see definition below) and removal of the drug from a patient’s local environment.

Even though we become very attached to our pet beliefs and may even distort our way of looking at things in order to defend them, ultimately CBT relies on the fact that we are not unreasonable: we need theories that fit with what we know of the world and that are able to make convincing sense of our lives. Cognitive behavioural therapy exploits this desire by encouraging us: to look at the way we may be distorting things to uphold our existing beliefs to become conscious of the underlying assumptions that steer our thoughts and reactions and treat them as provisional theories (hypotheses) rather than facts to test out the truth of our beliefs and assumptions against hard evidence from purpose-built behavioural experiments to conduct an objective review of all the relevant information available to see whether this data fits with our existing beliefs or whether those beliefs need to be changed. In other words, CBT exploits the fact that, when it comes down to it, there are few of us who are not open to persuasion by a reasonable argument and the evidence of our own senses. So

On the scale of all the bad things that have happened in the past or could happen to you in the future, how bad could this event be? If I had no choice but to deal with the very worst thing that could happen in this situation what would I actually do? Think about how you may have dealt with other past difficulties. What helped you then?

My third maxim was always to try to conquer myself rather than fortune, and to change my desires rather than the order of the world, and generally to accustom myself to believing that there is nothing that is completely within our power except our thoughts, so that, after we have done our best regarding things external to us, everything that is lacking for us to succeed is, from our point of view, absolutely impossible. And this alone seemed to me sufficient to prevent me in the future from desiring anything but what I was to acquire, and thus to make me contented.