Cognitive therapy
Cognitive therapy is very much like the positive or constructive thinking described above. Cognitive therapy helps you understand how your thoughts affect your feelings. In PTSD people have a tendency to overestimate the likelihood of trauma occurring again and feel fear. For example if the trauma followed a car accident the person may think "I will crash" or "Other drivers are careless and will hit me." Likewise, if the trauma following being assaulted then they may think, "Other people want to hurt me" "All men are dangerous." This is why people become anxious in situations that remind them of the traumatic situation. Other people feel shame through having shame related thoughts e.g. "I am weak because I should be able to cope with the accident." Whilst other people feel guilty, e.g. "I should have died not ......." "It was my fault" even when there is no or little evidence that the person was to blame. There are four steps to reducing this negative thinking and feeling better:
- become more aware of distressing thoughts
- pay attention to the connections between your thoughts, feelings and behaviours
- challenge (talk back to) your negative thoughts
- Substitute positive and more realistic thoughts for negative and unrealistic ones.
