ABSTRACT
Cognitive therapy is now a major field within psychotherapy and mental health. The knowledge that our thoughts play an important role in shaping our mental and emotional life has been around a long time. In order to manage your moods better, you need to become aware of your thoughts and how they influence your emotions, as well as how your emotions change the way you think. Butler and Hope (1995) illustrate how thoughts and feelings interact to produce depression or anxiety. Exercise 7.1
Write down on the left all the feelings you have when you are depressed. Put them in the sequence they occur. For example, maybe it begins with you feeling fed up, escalates to miserable, etc. Use vour own words.
https://s3-euw1-ap-pe-df-pch-content-public-p.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/9780203695555/2c06d8fa-f109-4a18-915a-792a33b0b6a4/content/ch7_page81-01_B.tif" xmlns:xlink="https://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"/>Now write down on the right the kind of thoughts you have when you are depressed: ‘Nobody cares about me’, ‘I'm a bad person’, ‘I hate myself. Again put them in the order you think they happen.
Using arrows, see if you can link the two lists to describe your own personal cycle of depression. (This describes what happens in a downward spiral. You can also do it in a vicious circle — whichever seems to most reflect your experience.)
Do you ever have a problem with anxiety or anger? If so you could repeat the exercise for those emotions.
