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Contents

Introduction 1 About This Book 2 Foolish Assumptions 3 Icons Used in This Book 4 Beyond the Book 4 Where to Go From Here 5 Part 1: Introducing CBT Basics 7 Chapter 1: You Feel the Way You Think 9 Using Scientifically Tested Methods 10 Understanding CBT 11 Combining science, philosophy and behaviour 11 Progressing from problems to goals 12 Making the Thought-Feeling Link 12 Emphasising the meanings you attach to events 13 Acting out 16 Learning Your ABCs 16 Characterising CBT 18 Chapter 2: Spotting Errors in Your Thinking 21 Catastrophising: Turning Mountains Back Into Molehills 22 All-or-Nothing Thinking: Finding Somewhere In-between 24 Fortune-Telling: Stepping Away From the Crystal Ball 26 Mind-Reading: Taking Your Guesses with a Pinch of Salt 27 Emotional Reasoning: Reminding Yourself That Feelings Aren't Facts 29 Overgeneralising: Avoiding the Part/Whole Error 31 Labelling: Giving Up the Rating Game 32 Making Demands: Thinking Flexibly 33 Mental Filtering: Keeping an Open Mind 35 Disqualifying the Positive: Keeping the Baby and Throwing Out the Bathwater 37 Low Frustration Tolerance: Realising You Can Bear the 'Unbearable' 38 Personalising: Removing Yourself from the Centre of the Universe 39 Chapter 3: Tackling Toxic Thoughts 43 Catching NATs 43 Making the thought-feeling link 44 Becoming more objective about your thoughts 44 Stepping Through the ABC Form I 44 Creating Constructive Alternatives: Completing the ABC Form II 49 Chapter 4: Designing and Conducting Behavioural Experiments 55 Seeing for Yourself: Reasons for Doing Behavioural Experiments 56 Testing Out Predictions 57 Seeking Evidence to See Which Theory Best Fits the Facts 59 Conducting Surveys 61 Making Observations 63 Ensuring Successful Behavioural Experiments 64 Keeping Records of Your Experiments 65 Chapter 5: Pay Attention! Refocusing and Retraining Your Awareness 67 Training in Task Concentration 68 Choosing to concentrate 69 Tuning in to tasks and the world around you 71 Tackling the task concentration record sheet 73 Becoming More Mindful 73 Being present in the moment 74 Letting your thoughts pass by 74 Discerning when not to listen to yourself 75 Incorporating mindful daily tasks 75 Tolerating upsetting images and unpleasant ideas 76 Part 2: Charting The Course: Defining Problems and Setting Goals 79 Chapter 6: Exploring Emotions 81 Naming Your Feelings 82 Thinking What to Feel 83 Understanding the Anatomy of Emotions 84 Comparing Healthy and Unhealthy Emotions 85 Spotting the difference in thinking 95 Spotting the difference in behaving, and ways you want to behave 97 Spotting the difference in what you focus on 98 Seeing Similarities in Your Physical Sensations 99 Identifying Feelings about Feelings 100 Defining Your Emotional Problems 102 Making a statement 102 Rating your emotional problem 102 Chapter 7: Identifying Solutions That Cause You Problems 105 When Feeling Better Can Make Your Problems Worse 106 Getting Over Depression without Getting Yourself Down 107 Loosening Your Grip on Control 108 Feeling Secure in an Uncertain World 109 Surmounting the Side Effects of Excessive Safety-Seeking 111 Wending Your Way Out of Worry 113 Preventing the Perpetuation of Your Problems 114 Helping Yourself: Putting the Petals on Your Vicious Flower 115 Chapter 8: Setting Your Sights on Goals 119 Putting SPORT into Your Goals 120 Homing In on How You Want to Be Different 121 Setting goals in relation to your current problems 121 Making a statement 122 Maximising Your Motivation 122 Identifying inspiration for change 122 Focusing on the benefits of change 123 Completing a cost-benefit analysis 123 Recording your progress 125 Part 3: Putting CBT Into Action 129 Chapter 9: Standing Up to Anxiety and Facing Fear 131 Acquiring Anti-Anxiety Attitudes 131 Thinking realistically about the probability of bad events 131 Avoiding extreme thinking 132 Taking the fear out of fear 132 Attacking Anxiety 134 Winning by not fighting 134 Defeating fear with FEAR 134 Repeatedly confronting your fears 135 Keeping your exposure challenging but not overwhelming 135 Shedding safety behaviours 137 Recording your fear-fighting 137 Overriding Common Anxieties 137 Socking it to social anxiety 138 Waging war on worry 138 Pounding on panic 138 Assaulting agoraphobia 139 Dealing with post-traumatic stress disorder 139 Hitting back at fear of heights 140 Chapter 10: Abolishing Addictions 143 Putting a Name to Your Problem 143 Familiarising Yourself with the Many Faces of Addiction 145 Accepting Yourself and Your Addiction 147 Securing Suitable Support 148 Deciding to Desist 148 Counting the costs 149 Being honest about the benefits 151 Transforming Intention into Action 153 Making a date 154 Cruising through cravings 154 Extending the time between urge and action 155 Dealing with deprivation 155 Putting positive obstacles in place 156 Leaving nothing to chance 157 Creating constructive conditions for continued recovery 157 Cleaning house 158 Taking up supportive socialising 159 Planning to Prevent Relapse 159 Chapter 11: Building a Better Body Image and Beating BDD 161 Making Friends with the Mirror 162 Do I have BDD? 163 Do I have an eating disorder? 164 Considering hypothetical cases 165 Taking Advertising and Media Messages with a Pinch of Salt 167 Recognising your own body image issues 167 Accepting yourself 171 Seeing yourself as a whole person 171 Saluting Your Body for Services Rendered 173 Enjoying scintillating sensations 174 Doing your daily duties 175 Valuing your vehicle for experience 176 Choosing to Change for All the Right Reasons 177 Maximising enjoyment 179 Bringing out your best 180 Being daring 181 Chapter 12: Deconstructing and Demolishing Depression 183 Understanding the Nature of Depression 184 Looking at What Fuels Depression 185 Going Round and Round in Your Head: Ruminative Thinking 186 Catching yourself in the act 187 Arresting ruminations before they arrest you 188 Activating Yourself as an Antidepressan 189 Tackling inactivity 190 Dealing with the here and now: Solving problems 190 Taking care of yourself and your environment 192 ACTing against Depression 192 Practising acceptance 193 Considering compassion 194 Obtaining a new outlook 195 Managing Suicidal Thoughts 196 Contemplating Complex Forms of Depression 196 Bipolar disorder 197 Cyclothymic disorder 197 Dysthymic disorder 198 Chapter 13: Sleeping Soundly 201 Assessing Your Sleep Situation 202 Eliminating Unhelpful Sleep Expectations 202 Getting Into a Clean Sleep Routine 204 Tiring yourself out 204 Establishing a sleep window 205 Slowing down on stimulation 206 Building a better bedtime routine 206 Relaxing your muscle 207 Limiting the (blue) light 207 Making your bedroom oh-so-cosy 207 Chapter 14: Overcoming Obsessions 211 Identifying and Understanding Obsessional Problems 212 Understanding obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) 213 Identifying Unhelpful Behaviours 215 Acquiring Anti-Obsessional Attitudes 216 Tolerating doubt and uncertainty 216 Trusting your judgement 216 Treating your thoughts as nothing more than thoughts 217 Being flexible and not trying too hard 218 Using external and practical criteria 218 Allowing your mind and body to do their own things 219 Normalising physical sensations, emotions and unpleasant thoughts 219 Facing Your Fears: Reducing (and Stopping) Rituals 220 Putting up firm resistance 220 Delaying and modifying rituals 221 Being Realistic about Responsibility 222 Dividing up your responsibility pie 222 Retraining your attention 224 Chapter 15: Overcoming Low Self-Esteem and Accepting Yourself 225 Identifying Issues of Self-Esteem 226 Developing Self-Acceptance 226 Understanding that you have worth because you're human 227 Appreciating that you're too complex to globally measure or rate 228 Acknowledging your ever-changing nature 230 Accepting your fallible nature 230 Valuing your uniqueness 230 Using self-acceptance to aid self-improvement 233 Understanding that acceptance doesn't mean giving up 234 Being Inspired to Change 235 Actioning Self-Acceptance 237 Self-talking your way to self-acceptance 237 Following the best-friend argument 238 Dealing with doubts and reservations 239 Selecting the Self-Help Journey to Self-Acceptance 240 Chapter 16: Cooling Down Your Anger 241 Discerning the Difference between Healthy and Unhealthy Anger 242 Key characteristics of unhealthy anger 242 Hallmarks of healthy anger 244 Assembling Attitudes That Underpin Healthy Anger 245 Putting up with other people 245 Forming flexible preferences 246 Accepting other people as fallible human beings 248 Accepting yourself 248 Developing high frustration tolerance 248 Pondering the pros and cons of your temper 250 Imparting Your Indignation in a Healthy Way 250 Asserting yourself effectively 251 Coping with criticism 252 Using the disarming technique 253 Acting Assertively in the Workplace 254 Putting your point across positively 255 Remaining professional 257 Dealing with Difficulties in Overcoming Anger 257 Chapter 17: Healing Illness Anxiety 261 Analysing the Anatomy of Illness Anxiety 262 Getting to know Medically Unexplained Physical Sensations 263 Minimising Your Fear of Missing an Important Symptom 264 Feeling Secure in an Uncertain Body 265 Part 4: Looking Backwards and Moving Forwards 267 Chapter 18: Taking a Fresh Look at Your Past 269 Exploring How Your Past Can Influence Your Present 270 Identifying What Core Beliefs Are 271 Introducing the three camps of core beliefs 272 Seeing how your core beliefs interact 273 Detecting Your Core Beliefs 274 Following a downward arrow 274 Picking up clues from your dreaming and screaming 275 Tracking themes275 Filling in the blanks 276 Understanding the Impact of Core Beliefs 276 Spotting when you are acting according to old rules and beliefs 276 Understanding that unhealthy core beliefs make you prejudiced 277 Making a Formulation of Your Beliefs 279 Limiting the Damage: Being Aware of Core Beliefs 282 Developing Alternatives to Your Core Beliefs 283 Revisiting history 283 Starting from scratch 285 Chapter 19: Moving New Beliefs from Your Head to Your Heart 287 Defining the Beliefs You Want to Strengthen 288 Acting As If You Already Believe 289 Building a Portfolio of Arguments 290 Generating arguments against an unhelpful belief 290 Generating arguments to support your helpful alternative belief 292 Understanding That Practice Makes Imperfect 294 Dealing with your doubts and reservations 294 Zigging and zagging through the zigzag technique 295 Putting your new beliefs to the test 297 Nurturing Your New Beliefs 298 Chapter 20: Heading for a Healthier and Happier Life 301 Planning to Prevent Relapse 302 Filling In the Gaps 302 Choosing absorbing activities 302 Matchmaking your pursuits 303 Putting personal pampering into practice 304 Overhauling Your Lifestyle 304 Walking the walk 306 Talking the talk 308 Getting intimate 308 Living in Line with Your Values 311 Reflecting your values through action 314 Staying focused on what's most important 316 Reshuffling priorities 316 Chapter 21: Overcoming Obstacles to Progress 317 Tackling Emotions That Get in the Way of Change 317 Shifting shame 318 Getting rid of guilt 318 Putting aside pride 319 Seeking support 320 Trying a little tenderness 321 Adopting Positive Principles That Promote Progress 321 Understanding that simple doesn't mean easy 321 Being optimistic about getting better 322 Staying focused on your goals 323 Persevering and repeating 323 Tackling Task-Interfering Thoughts 324 Chapter 22: Psychological Gardening: Maintaining Your CBT Gains 327 Knowing Your Weeds from Your Flowers 327 Working on Weeds 329 Nipping weeds in the bud 329 Spotting where weeds may grow 330 Dealing with recurrent weeds 332 Tending Your Flowers 333 Planting new varieties 333 Being a compassionate gardener 335 Chapter 23: Working with the Professionals 337 Procuring Professional Help 337 Thinking about the right therapy for you 339 Meeting the experts 340 Tracking Down the Right CBT Therapist for You 342 Asking yourself the right questions 342 Speaking to the specialists 344 Making the Most of CBT 346 Discussing issues during sessions 346 Being active between sessions 347 Part 5: The Part of Tens 351 Chapter 24: Ten Philosophies for Living That Work 353 Assuming Emotional Responsibility: Owning the Way You Feel 353 Thinking Flexibly 354 Valuing Your Individuality 355 Accepting That Life Can Be Unfair 355 Understanding That Approval from Others Isn't Necessary 356 Realising Love Is Desirable, Not Essential 357 Tolerating Short-Term Discomfort 357 Enacting Enlightened Self-Interest 358 Pursuing Interests and Acting Consistently with Your Values 359 Tolerating Uncertainty 359 Chapter 25: Ten Self-Esteem Boosters That Don't Work 361 Putting Others Down 362 Thinking You're Special 362 Trying to Get Everyone to Like You 363 Placing Yourself above Criticism 363 Avoiding Failure, Disapproval, Rejection and Other Animals 364 Avoiding Your Emotions 364 Attempting to Feel More Significant by Controlling Others 365 Over-Defending Your Self-Worth 365 Feeling Superior 365 Blaming Nature or Nurture for Your Problems 366 Chapter 26: Ten Mythical Monsters of Mental Health 367 Psychological Problems Mean You're Weak 367 I Should Be Able to Get Better on My Own 368 Mental Health Is an Either/Or Issue 368 You Get Better All at Once 368 The Drugs Don't Work; They Just Make You Worse 369 Certain Types of Psychological Disorders Are Glamorous 370 Mental Illness Is Unpreventable; It's Just Bad Luck 370 Everyone Can Tell when a Person Has a Mental Illness 371 Having a Mental Illness Means You're Dangerous 371 Seeking Help Will Go on My Medical Record and Hurt My Future Prospects 372 Part 6: Appendixes 373 Appendix A: Recommended Resources 375 Appendix B: Forms 379 Index 395

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