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Disputing
Automatic Negative Thoughts
Some questions that may prove
particularly helpful for examining and testing the
reality of negative automatic thoughts are these:
1. What evidence do I have for the
validity of this thought?
2. Is there any alternative way of
looking at the situation?
3. Is there a more plausible
explanation for what happened?
4. What evidence is there against
the validity of this thought?
5. How would someone else think
about the situation?
6. Are my judgments based on how I
feel rather than how I did in the situation?
7. Am I setting myself an
unrealistic or unobtainable standard?
8. Am I forgetting any relevant
facts or over-focusing on irrelevant facts?
9. Am I thinking in all-or-nothing
terms?
10. Am I overestimating how
responsible I am for the way things work out?
11. Am I overestimating how much
control I have over how things work out?
12. What will actually, factually
occur if the bad event does happen?
13. If the bad event does occur,
what would be so awful about it?
14. If the bad event does occur,
how will things be in ___ months? In ___ years?
15. Am I overestimating the
likelihood of the bad event?
16. Am I underestimating what I can
do to deal with the problem/situation?
17. Is there anything good at all
which could result, or which I could make happen, if the
bad event does occur?
18. If the bad event is my death,
or if it causes my death, is there any evidence that I
could not stand being dead? |
