Today I will share with you techniques for working with thinking that will help you cope with anxiety disorder. Let's start with the theory. Albert Ellis came up with the famous ABC formula. What does this formula mean? A - Activitating Event / Activating Event - an event that triggers an automatic reaction B - Beliefs / Assessment of the situation, thoughts and attitudes - this is what occurs in response to an activating event. We cannot always clearly name our thoughts. Sometimes pictures and images may appear in your head. C – Consequences/Consequences - reaction. This is where emotions arise in response to a thought. This also includes behavior and physiological response. The essence of this scheme is that when we find ourselves in certain situations, we automatically have interpretations, which in turn trigger an emotional reaction. It is important to understand that the events themselves are neutral. The world is what it is. Anything can happen on planet Earth and it is a natural part of life. When we begin to perceive the world, we begin to somehow evaluate it, through the prism of our beliefs and past experiences. The way we evaluate events causes our emotional reactions and also triggers our behavior. Let's take a situation - it started to rain. Someone will evaluate this extremely negatively - “this gloomy weather again, everything is wet, slushy and terrible, you won’t be able to take a normal walk, you’ll have to sit at home alone.” On the contrary, someone will rate it positively - “Great, rain! The weather is bright, you can cover yourself with a blanket and drink hot chocolate, and there will be a pleasant sound of water in the background. You can also invite friends over and sit comfortably together.” Some people won’t give any assessments - “it’s raining, oh well.” Your task is to keep a diary where you will write down all the events in which you reacted emotionally: your boss yelled at you, your friend doesn’t answer, you fired, you judged, you criticized, etc. d. You may also find that nothing happens, but thoughts arise. And there are also thoughts in response to thoughts. All this is also worth writing down. Your thoughts can be an activating event. It is important to separate event and interpretation. The event is neutral, it is factual information. And thoughts are evaluative, they are not a fact. To check, you can use the question - would this be a fact for all people or just for me? At the very beginning it will be difficult to identify thoughts and you may think that you are reacting to facts. To identify thoughts, the “Falling Arrow” technique will help you. The essence of this technique is to reach depth and bring to the surface thoughts that you are not aware of. A list of questions to help elicit thoughts:➖What does this situation mean to you?➖What could this lead to?➖What will happen next?➖What's wrong with... ?➖What's the worst that could happen as a result of this?➖If it happens so, then what?➖How does this characterize you?➖What does this say about you?At a moment when you are caught up in emotions, it is useless to debate and challenge your thoughts. Your task is simply to record what is happening to you. When you cool down and come to your senses, you can move on to the next stage - challenging your thoughts. What evidence is there? Our beliefs are quite often far from reality, but since we believe in them, it doesn’t even occur to us to start doubting them. There is no task to change your thoughts to the opposite. There is a task - to find the truth. Your thoughts may be completely truthful and reflect objective reality, or they may, on the contrary, distort it. Both still need to be proven. Make two lists. List 1 - evidence confirming the truth of your thoughts. List 2 - evidence refuting your thoughts. It is important to rely on real facts and not on speculation. Your assessment should in no way be used as evidence or refutation. There is a big risk here of proving your irrational thoughts through exactly the same irrational thoughts. To prevent misrepresentation of facts, you can use the list of cognitive distortions -0