Example Of CT Requested by the Illustriuous SR, aka, Cake Girl
(Note true, fiction)
I go to work. A new girl is starting her first day. She is beautiful. I am attracted to her. I am shy and nervous, but manage to say Hello and ask her name. She pauses, looks at me, mumbles hello and walks away quickly.
My internal, hidden thoughts:
I am ugly, I must smell, she doesn't like me, I can't attract women, women don't like me, I'll never get a girlfriend, I'll never be married, people think I'm gay, I'm a failure, my parents are disappointed in me, I'm a nerd.
I may have these thoughts, that is, they may run through my head at such a speed that I am not even aware of them. These thoughts are merely opinions, probably false, and really have nothing to do with the truth, or reality: the girl might have been in an accident on her way to work, may herself be shy, I may not be a failure in anyone's eyes but my own, etc.
Yet, these thoughts (hence the name cognitive therapy, which basically means thinking or cognition) exist and influence my view of the world and my place in it. Thus, invalid thoughts or opinions are being used to define reality, it's my lenses into the world and my view of myself.
In reality, I've had several girlfriends, make very good money, am educated, am adored by my parents.
Later in the week, I yell at a coworker who I don't really like and cause a scene. Later, I drink at a bar and get drunk and get dissed by a woman for being a jerk and saying she has a nice ass. Her BF slugs me in the gut and I double over. My own assumptions are being confirmed. I wake up the next day with a hangover and lay in bed brooding, sad and depressed. A knock on the door. It's a Jehovah's Witness and they tell me I can be saved. I start to cry because I feel as though I do need to be saved. Saved not from the Devil but from my own distorted thinking.
The cognitive therapist helps a person untangle thoughts so they can get a more realistic picture of reality and unburden them of emotional suffering.
(Note true, fiction)
I go to work. A new girl is starting her first day. She is beautiful. I am attracted to her. I am shy and nervous, but manage to say Hello and ask her name. She pauses, looks at me, mumbles hello and walks away quickly.
My internal, hidden thoughts:
I am ugly, I must smell, she doesn't like me, I can't attract women, women don't like me, I'll never get a girlfriend, I'll never be married, people think I'm gay, I'm a failure, my parents are disappointed in me, I'm a nerd.
I may have these thoughts, that is, they may run through my head at such a speed that I am not even aware of them. These thoughts are merely opinions, probably false, and really have nothing to do with the truth, or reality: the girl might have been in an accident on her way to work, may herself be shy, I may not be a failure in anyone's eyes but my own, etc.
Yet, these thoughts (hence the name cognitive therapy, which basically means thinking or cognition) exist and influence my view of the world and my place in it. Thus, invalid thoughts or opinions are being used to define reality, it's my lenses into the world and my view of myself.
In reality, I've had several girlfriends, make very good money, am educated, am adored by my parents.
Later in the week, I yell at a coworker who I don't really like and cause a scene. Later, I drink at a bar and get drunk and get dissed by a woman for being a jerk and saying she has a nice ass. Her BF slugs me in the gut and I double over. My own assumptions are being confirmed. I wake up the next day with a hangover and lay in bed brooding, sad and depressed. A knock on the door. It's a Jehovah's Witness and they tell me I can be saved. I start to cry because I feel as though I do need to be saved. Saved not from the Devil but from my own distorted thinking.
The cognitive therapist helps a person untangle thoughts so they can get a more realistic picture of reality and unburden them of emotional suffering.
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