Eating Disorder Recovery and Overcoming Negative Thoughts - By: Jacquelyn Ekern

An eating disorder may be a sign that one's relationship with self is poor. Perhaps the individual suffering from anorexia, bulimia, binge eating disorder or compulsive overeating has established negative thinking patterns that keep them in their disorder. To recover, one must begin to question the messages given to the self and restructure negative thoughts with more rational and optimistic thinking.

Resolution of uncomfortable feelings and regrettable behaviors directly improves the quality of your life. The theory of cognitive behavior therapy empowers you to use your God given logical thinking capacity to improve your life.

Using cognitive behavior therapy can inspire hope, self-esteem and empowerment within you. Here are the common thinking errors identified by this theory, developed by Dr. Aaron Beck (he earned his Ph.D. in psychiatry from Yale University in 1946):

Arbitrary Inference

This means to jump to conclusions without a factual basis for your determination. It means to expect the worst, when that is generally not the way things turn out. Actually, things more often than not turn out somewhere in the middle of our highest and lowest expectations.

Selective Abstraction

Only focusing on one piece of information and not taking the whole story into account. This means to select only parts of the whole picture to focus on. When we actually process things more logically, it makes sense to take in the whole picture and not just an isolated incident.

Overgeneralization

To apply a negative paradigm about ourselves or our lives to every aspect of our lives. For example, to say "I always lose" is an overgeneralization. No one always loses. Heck, out of millions of little sperm competing for an egg, you are the one that made it! So, this is one success that already contradicts the "I always lose" theory. Most people can think of a more positive and realistic perspective, once negative thinking patterns are recognized.

Magnification and Minimization

To view a situation as all good or all bad. Rather than appreciating that both good and bad exist in most human experiences. If I focus on economic bad news, the stock market's decline, and increasing inflation, I might feel overwhelmed about my financial security. It helps if one takes in the whole picture and does not focus on isolated aspects of a situation.

Labeling and Mislabeling

"I am a fat pig". Ouch! Name calling is never okay and least of all toward oneself in our internal dialogue. No human being is a pig, and this is ridiculous label to call oneself when it is exposed to rational thinking.

Another indication of this thinking error is when one allows past experiences to determine our self esteem today. People change, evolve and grow. A failure in one's past does not mean that you cannot be successful now. It just means that you're human, like the rest of us.

Personalization

This means to take things personally. Someone else in a bad mood does not mean it is your fault! Someone else letting you down does not mean you are bad. Sometimes the person, place or thing is functioning completely independent of us and we were no influence whatsoever. Quite often, others behaviors and attitudes is about them, and doesn't even involve us.

Polarized Thinking

Seeing life and ourselves in black and white is a common thinking error. Not much is that simple! Try to recognize it when you are viewing a situation in extremes and choose to moderate your view. Sometimes we may work very hard, write what we view as a great paper, and disappointingly receive a C grade instead of the A we had anticipated. However, one grade and even one class does not determine your academic success overall.

Conclusions

The wonderful thing about recognizing and correcting these irrational thinking errors is that it empowers the individual struggling with an eating disorder to begin taking care of themselves emotionally. They learn self soothing skills through thinking things through in a more balanced way, thus lessening their need to practice disordered eating to cope.

About the Author

Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC http://www.EatingDisorderHope.com Eating Disorder is Directed and Founded by Jacquelyn Ekern, MS, LPC. Eating Disorder Hope offers information, eating disorder treatment options, recovery tools & resources to those suffering from eating disorders, their treatment providers & families. Eating Disorder Hope provides treatment options & recovery tools for those struggling with bulimia, anorexia & binge-eating disorder.

Article Directory Source: http://www.articlerich.com/profile/Jacquelyn-Ekern/94835

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