Hi Josie, ok I am a day late I think. But I will gladly give CBT#1 a go. Hope I got it right?
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Who was there?
My workmates.
What happened?
I started thinking about Day 180 and then about my smoking friends and how restricted I made myself when I quit.
Where did it happen?
Work.
Why did it happen?
It happened because I am not happy in my quit. I also may suffer from magnification of emotions.
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Another way to record negative thinking is like below. Of course it is important to record your thoughts but it is also important to know what to do to change them. I must admit to still working on this. The way it works is thus. You think of a negative thing, so for in your example it would be
Automatic Thought = 'He's not talking to me any more. What's wrong with me? I am such a loser!'
Next comes the analysis of that statement. Things like 'I am such a loser' is labelling. 'He's not talking to me any more' is fortune telling error, you cannot predict the future.
Cognitive Distortion = Labelling, fortune telling error.
Next, after maybe a cooling down period, you should be able to write a rational response...
Rational Response = 'It's highly likely that he just didn't notice me. He could have a lot on his mind too. Anyway, I am not a loser, 5 other people spoke to me today and if I was such a loser then they would not have done so'
I think this is probably ok if you have the occasional negative though, however, if you live in your own little world of mainly negativity and self-doubt then you can fill entire pages of this stuff. The rational response isn't easy either. Mine seem to say 'Lets face it, you need drugs. In absence of hard uppers from the doc, how about some nicotine filled cigarettes?'
I guess I haven't quite got the hang of that yet :)
[B]My Milage:[/B]
[B]My Quit Date: [/B]7/12/2007
[B]Smoke-Free Days:[/B] 179
[B]Cigarettes Not Smoked:[/B] 4,475
[B]Amount Saved:[/B] �751.80
[B]Life Gained:[/B]
[B]Days:[/B] 22 [B]Hrs:[/B] 23 [B]Mins:[/B] 50 [B]Seconds:[/B] 20
