Me Irrational? No Way. . .

So, at the beginning of this semester, I decided to be proactive. I set up an appointment at the counseling center on campus in order to stay one step ahead of my emotions. I went in and met with one of the counselors on campus, and he recommended I attend a workshop each week for 5 weeks.

Our first week, we talked about a type of therapy called CBT, more specifically REBT. In this approach, there is an activating event, or adversity, that causes an irrational belief. The irrational belief causes consequences. The goal of CBT is to teach the person to recognize, combat, and change irrational beliefs.

So, what is an irrational belief? Well, there are three types of irrational beliefs: catastrophizing, demands, and human rating. Catastrophizing is when something is believed to be horrible, awful, terrible, etc. These thoughts are blown way out of proportion. For example, Sue found out that she got a C on her test. The irrational belief would be that getting a C on a test is terrible, and she is going to flunk the course, and on and on. Demands are when we tell ourselves that we must/have to do something. Sue, for example, has told herself that she must get an A on her test. If Sue doesn’t get an A, what is going to happen? Then there is human rating. This is the concept that one person can be better or more good than another. This is very detrimental when we rate ourselves. For example, because Sue got a C on her test, she believes that she is less than others in the course.

So, armed with information, we were tasked with recognizing and combatting our irrational beliefs. That is easier said than done. These irrational beliefs have quite a bit of emotional weight, and it is difficult to change the way you think. So, like a good little student, I went through my week paying attention to my thoughts. I knew I had some of these irrational beliefs, but I was shocked at how many. I caught myself on so many occasions employing not just one, but sometimes all three types of irruption beliefs at once. I would tell my self that I was never going to succeed and that I was less than others because of that. Then, catching myself in that thought, I would think “that’s awful, I’m never going to be able to change the way I think.” Well, that thought was counterproductive!

It is easy to recognize irrational beliefs. The hard part come in combatting them. I noticed that after a little while, I was better able to come up with a rational belief to replace the irrational one. Like, instead of saying that I will never succeed, I can tell myself that I have already succeeded in so many ways. I also noticed that many irrational thoughts are along the same lines. So, I think that if I can identify my common irrational beliefs, then I can find rational beliefs to replace them. I will then be prepared when irrational beliefs come into my mind.

I guess we’ll see how it goes!