ABSTRACT
In step 4 of the DRF-2 I showed you how to identify the four irrational beliefs that underpinned your emotional and behavioural responses to the critical A, and their rational alternatives. In step 5 you are asked to condense these irrational beliefs into a composite, unhealthy belief by selecting the demand and one of the following irrational beliefs (awfulizing belief, LFT belief or depreciation belief) that best captured what you believed when you disturbed yourself in the situation in question. There are two reasons why I suggest that your composite unhealthy belief is comprised of these two components. First, if you select just the demand, even though this is at the very core of your disturbance, without one of the other irrational beliefs you will not know whether you are dealing with an example of ego disturbance (where a self-depreciation belief is normally to the fore), an example of other-directed unhealthy anger (where an other-depreciation belief is prominent) or with an example of non-ego disturbance where an awfulizing belief or an LFT belief is normally highlighted in your mind. Second, if you select all four irrational beliefs, you are overloading yourself later when you come to question these beliefs. Questioning a demand and one other irrational belief is manageable, while questioning all four irrational beliefs is usually not. Once you have selected the demand and one other irrational belief, I suggest that you refer to this composite belief as an unhealthy belief. From now on, whenever I write about unhealthy beliefs, I refer to beliefs that have a demand and one other irrational belief.
