welcome to this presentation on the abcs of cognitive behavioral therapy uh this is part
of the cognitive behavioral therapy nuggets series and i'm your host dr dawn elise snipes
the abcs are one of the most foundational skills in cognitive behavioral therapy
in the abcs we recognize an activating event what happened we recognized the consequences of that
event what was our reaction and between the time that something happens and we have a reaction
we have this whole litany of automatic and often unhelpful exaggerated or out of context beliefs
i'm going to use the example of getting cut off in traffic because most people have experienced that
activating event you get cut off in traffic consequences you get angry
you have that hpa axis gets activated your blood pressure goes up your heart starts racing you feel
angry you're thinking your cognitions get kind of cloudy because you're in that adrenaline haze
and you may get grumpy and irritable with you know the person who cut you off even if they can't hear
you because they're in a whole nother car those are the consequences how did we get from getting
cut off in traffic to that reaction what happened that prompted that reaction that threat response
well that's when you go through and you identify what were all of the beliefs
that i had that contributed to my reaction okay once you do that you go back over each belief
and dispute it based on the facts so if you think well that person you know was being rude
do we know this are there do we have facts to know that the person was being rude
maybe you were in their blind spot and they didn't see you so you can cross that one off
um i could have died well that's kind of extreme most of the time when we get cut off in traffic we
have to apply brakes a little bit but the chances that we were actually that close to getting killed
are grossly exaggerated so we may adjust that um you know i could have gotten into a car accident
and go through each belief addressing them based on the facts what you know for a fact
to be true not what you assume not what you think not what you hypothesize but what you know
based on the facts you're going to have some beliefs that still remain and that's cool because
those are helpful so you go back and you evaluate the effectiveness of your reactions based on the
beliefs that are actually factual how effective is my reaction for helping me use my energy and time
in ways that move towards my rich and meaningful life
said another way is getting all bothered by this person who cut me off in traffic
is all that energy that i'm using helping me move towards my rich and meaningful life
probably not and i will share a little anecdote with you i remember when my son was about two
he was in the back seat and i got cut off in traffic and i started you know talking angrily
at the person and this little voice from the back of the car pipes up and he said he says mommy
why are you talking to that man he can't hear you yeah you're right
holding on to that anger getting upset getting rageful at that person wasn't going to change
his behavior even if he knew what i was saying most likely and all it was doing was
keeping me stirred up instead of choosing a more effective way to react for example backing
off so i wasn't around that person anymore who was not driving in a safe and defensive manner