One of the most important exercises in CBT is keeping an automatic thoughts journal.
The journal is a very complex tool consisting of a dozen steps.
Our application was originally created to give people the opportunity to keep such a journal in a convenient and interactive form. To this day, this functionality occupies a central place.
In this chapter, we will not detail all the fields of the journal.
Go directly to the "Automatic Thoughts Journal" section; we have added detailed explanations at each step of filling.
Now we would like to focus on the essence of keeping the journal and its main fields.
As the name suggests, in the journal we record and work through our automatic thoughts.
More content in our app
You're only seeing a portion of the content. In the app, you'll find numerous interactive articles. Additionally, there are psychological tests to track your mood dynamics, a daily planner, an automatic thought journal, and much more!
From previous chapters, you already know that automatic thoughts are the top and most accessible layer of our beliefs for us.
Although they seem to be just a manifestation of deeper beliefs and there's a desire to start working with the root immediately, therapy always begins with a thorough work specifically on automatic thoughts.
This is primarily done because it greatly helps to reduce the severity of your disorder. Some people suffer seriously, and at the beginning of therapy, it is necessary to reduce their level before further work.
Start by recording your destructive thoughts and responding to them.
Just a few days of regular work, and you will physically feel the effect.
And as soon as the severity of your disorder decreases, you will be able to move on to working with deeper layers of beliefs.
Now let's talk about the main fields of the journal.
The main fields in working with the journal are "Automatic Thought", belief level in it, and "Alternative Response".
Without filling out these fields, working with the journal makes no sense.
In the app, you can create a record without filling in the main fields, for example, if you want to work on it later.
In such a case, we will mark the entry as "draft".
Properly formulating an automatic thought is a complex process.
Many people start talking about feelings or an event.
Let's go through a few examples of incorrectly formulated thoughts:
This is just a statement of fact, it can't be disputed. Yes, indeed, you are afraid to make a new acquaintance - an absolutely constructive reaction.
But, although shyness is a healthy reaction common to most people, in the case of a person with destructive settings it can be hyperbolized and create significant problems in life.
Let's try not just to state the fact but to add our own attitude:
In this statement, there is already something to work with. We clearly see a cognitive distortion.
A specific girl at a specific moment can indeed reject a young man. This happens all the time with different people, and it's normal.
But is this man really so bad that any girl would reject him? Probably not, and we are dealing with cognitive distortions "Overgeneralization" and "Mental Filter".
Let's try to soften the negative distortion and make it more adequate:
I'm afraid to approach and introduce myself to this girl, I'm sure she will reject me, as would any other
This girl might reject me, but it doesn't mean there's something wrong with me. I know many examples of men who were rejected, then tried again and made acquaintances. If I get rejected by one girl, it doesn't mean I will always be rejected
Properly formulating automatic thoughts and responding to them is extremely important in the therapy process.
In the future, we will dedicate a separate material to how to properly formulate and contest automatic thoughts.
In this section, we briefly explained what an automatic thoughts journal is, and also gave an introduction to the proper work on thoughts.
We encourage you to explore the other fields of the journal on your own during the filling process. Use the prompts with examples, and if you still have questions, you can always write to us!
