cognitive behavioral therapy?

Question

Isnt it normal to experience thoughts that make us feel bad ? Are there actually people out there who are happy, balanced and experiencing non harmfull thoughts 100% of the time ?

Answer 1

The short answer to all your questions is yes! However (caveat), there will only be people happy 100% of the time in a controlled environment, the same as there will only be people depressed 100% in a controlled environment. Our environment impacts greatly on our mood, but people who are depressed will tend to put themselves into a bad environment and people who are happy the reverse.
Everyone has thoughts that make them feel bad, it's the degree of that feeling and the severity of those thoughts that differ. People with OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) are prone to exceptionally bad thoughts that they have no control over without some sort of cognitive therapy. It is worth noting that most OCD sufferers wil tell you that there is no way they would ever act on such thoughts, that these thoughts are totally alien to their character (hence why they are so traumatic), like the grandmother who kept having flashes of immersing her grandchild in boiling water while cooking, or the cat lover who would get flashes of smashing his cat into a wall. These thoughts stem from a breakdown in the flght-to-flight reflex. The person is seeing thoughts that most people would experience subconciously and then disregard, but when the FTF reflex is permenently on, the sufferer is in a constant state of anxiety because thier brain is telling them that "something" is wrong all the time. If that person is not aware they are suffering from this, they start to imagine what could be wrong and then convince themselves this is the case because the thoughts now match the feelings and eventually that person "see's" the worst things they can imagine. This is where many of the "God told me to do it" squad tend to find their inspiration, as the process is very experiential.
(*as an example imagine 3 friends, one of whom is in this permenant state of anxiety. One friend whispers to the other that he wants to plan a suprise party for the third friend to cheer him up, The third friend see's this and because he feels there is something wrong convinces himself the other two are plotting against him - the thought matches the feeling and for friend number 3 this is now an accurate representation of the reality he is living in. This is beyond normal paranoia, because to the sufferer this is his or her reality).
These thoughts can arise from seperate issues as well, sometimes through psychological trauma, through substance abuse, or through naturally occurring chemical and neurological imbalances in the brain.
A person who was happy 100% of the time, and who never got depressed or down regardless of circumstance, would be considered to be just as imbalanced as someone who was permenantly negative, it is just unlikely they would ever feel a need to be treated for it, except when a loved one died and they didn't have a chance to grieve.
All of us need to feel bad at some point, it is our brains way of dealing with the negativity and stress in our day-to-day lives, it is when this becomes a permenant mental state that health suffers. I myself have suffered years of very traumatic depression and anxiety. Drugs help, for a while, as does alcohol, but in the end cognitive therapy and the support of at least one other person, be it a friend, loved one or even a doctor or clinician, is the only way to some sort of permenant solution.

Answer 2

With all of the negative influences around us today like the tv, radio, and the internet, let alone people in general, YES, it is normal for any of us to have 'bad' thoughts.
We are, after all, human. Some of us tend to be more negative than others..looking at the glass as half empty instead of half full.
That is our human nature I suppose.
As long as we're here on this earth there will always be a place for 'bad thoughts' in our minds. All of us experience this.
However, there are ways to ward them off and it takes practice.
The impact negative thinking has on us is tremendous. It causes a lot of stress which can make us ill and it also lowers the immune system.
You can read up on this subject at any library or book store. I don't know if you're religious but if you are you can always go that route.
Keep your head up and try to remember that no matter how bad you think you have it in life, there's always someone out here that has it way worse than you do.
We all struggle, but our attitude towards what we are going through is the key to our survival and can be the motivation to help us through it.
Hope all is well.

Answer 3

I'm not sure if I've understood what you mean by harmful thoughts; if you mean thoughts of doing harm to others, or wishing them harm, then I have to say that I never have those thoughts. I'm sure though that when I was younger I did; perhaps when I felt that someone had behaved very unfairly or even destructively towards me or someone close. I think what's changed me is the discovery that those who are bad to others, usually have that returned to them; maybe not right away, but one day...... what goes around, comes around. I'm not being complacement, because we never know what's around the corner, but I think I must be happy most of the time and pretty well balanced, although I've never given it much thought to be honest. Try to keep smiling and try to find humour in everything - it does help. (Have to admit that Iif someone's been particularly obnoxious I do call them names to myself - does that constitute harmful feelings, I wonder? I do feel much better afterwards, because I can laugh again).

Answer 4

You are correct. But CBT is supposed to get rid off unhealthy negative and desctructive thinking and teach some techniques to overcome phobias, depression, and anxiety. It's supposed to increase what psychologist call 'quality of life'. But I'm not a fan of this. I tried psychotherapy, but it only made me more intensively inspect myself, which wasn't anyhow beneficiary. For more severe problems, you need good psychiatrists and medication and added to that you can just then effectively work with your own will.

Answer 5

Of course it is normal to have all kinds of thoughts. It's only when certain kinds get obsessive or preoccupy us too much that they are worrying.
No-one is happy and balanced 100% of the time.

Answer 6

no-one is happy 100% of the time. we have experiences that make us momentarily elated and then we return to our normal state of either feeling neutral or actually morose depending on how extreme a person is. everyone hides thier true thoughts and feelings from others unless they are egotistical or vain.

Answer 7

i dont like cognitive behavioural theory too :) i come from a gestalt background. we believe that feelings can not be devided in "normal" and "abnormal", or "healthy" and "healthy", feelings are feelings, they just "are", they just "exist". we are humans, we have feelings. rather than dismissing "bad" feelings, we try to look into them, how we excperience them, how we came to feel this way, how they help us or how they block us from going on. we believe than we all have both sides, "good" and "bad" and problems arise when one of the two exceeds the other, we need to embrace both sides and find a BALANCE.
i like this view better because it makes me feel better :)

Answer 8

I like triple X's answer.

Answer 9

I'm with you. C.B.T., absolute bullshit, reminds me of the song,
"we only making plans for Nigel".