Do you ever find yourself struggling to fight negative thoughts? How many times do you find yourself or others telling you, “cheer up”, “don’t be so negative”, “look on the bright side”? 

Well, you can’t just tell yourself or others to be positive and expect everything to magically get better. Toxic positivity can be just as detrimental to our mental health as negative thoughts. Instead, it’s important that we learn to understand our thought patterns and begin challenging our beliefs.  

When struggling with an addiction, it is key to get to the root of the problem behind the addiction. This is where cognitive behavioural therapy — or cognitive journaling comes in.  

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy

Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is a psychotherapeutic treatment designed to help people understand their feelings underneath their behaviour. CBT focuses on helping people identify and alter negative behaviour. By identifying our negative thoughts, we can begin to break the cycle and come up with solutions.  

CBT has proven to be effective for a variety of issues including depression, anxiety disorders, substance use problems, marital problems, eating disorders and severe mental illness. There are many different strategies used in cognitive behaviour therapy, such as journaling, role-playing, relaxation techniques, and mental distraction.  

For brevity, we’ll look at the overview of cognitive journaling (developed by Psychiatrist Richard Ragnarson) and how you can apply it. If you want to truly understand the concept, I highly recommend you take a look at Dr. Ragnarson’s in-depth article. 

The ABC Model

Cognitive journaling is a way to observe and release the thought patterns we have daily. To start changing them, we must understand the process. This is why Ragnarson coined the ABC Model of CBT to describe a cycle that can be applied to any life experience. 

Activating event → Beliefs → Consequences 

Activating event: Any internal or external event that triggers thoughts and/or emotions 

Beliefs: Our thoughts or feelings we make of the event 

Consequences: The outcome of A + B 

This process can occur so fast that we don’t even realize it. That’s why our knee-jerk reaction can so frequently be negative thoughts resulting in consequences that we cause without consciously understanding why we choose to believe these thoughts.  

For example: 

A: You don’t accomplish the said thing you wanted to do today. → B: This triggers disappointment and self-loathing, → C: These thoughts begin to take over and you lose control.  

What is Cognitive Journaling?

Ragnarson gives three key principles for cognitive journaling to be successful: 

• Falsifiability: The act of looking at an experience and asking yourself if it’s a fact or just an opinion. If it’s a fact, you can prove it to be false – where if it’s an opinion, you cannot.  
• Non-judgment: As you describe the events or the thoughts/emotions you experience, avoid making any judgments about their possible cause.  
• Detail: Be descriptive about the event that you experienced and the process that happened that made you think and feel a certain way. Instead of jotting down short notes, try to really paint a picture of the scenario so you can immersive yourself into it.

By using these principles, as you write about the ABC’s you will have a better and more objective understanding of the situation. 

5 Step Cognitive Journaling Process 

1. Write down the C (consequence). What did these emotions and thoughts cause?
2. Describe the A (activating action). Describe the situation you were in using the three principles.
3. Find your B (belief). Recall what your thoughts were following the event and describe it using the three principles.
4. Challenge these beliefs. To do that you must evaluate the validity, doubt it, and find a better alternative.
5. What’s the alternative? Finally, write down positive alternative beliefs so you can refer back to them and remind yourself that the chain or negativity can be broken. 

Challenge your unhealthy beliefs

Cognitive journaling is an effective tool to break the vicious cycle of negative self-talk. Applying this technique in your routine can do wonders for your mental health in recovery. As a person in recovery, it’s crucial to understand your thought patterns and prevent unhealthy beliefs from impacting your recovery.  

If you’re interested in learning about other therapeutical tools to use in your recovery, make an appointment for FREE counselling sessions at your closest Avalon Women’s Centre.