ABC Form Filled in
Instructions#
Fill this form by going through the sections in the order they appear. Nothing you write ever leaves your browser, or is saved anywhere.You can print (cmd + p or Ctrl + p) or save this page for your future reference.
1. Consequences#
1a. Emotions#
What are you feeling? Describe your emotions, behaviors, physical sensations.
- Angry
- Anxious
- Ashamed
- Belittled
- Depressed
- Disappointed
- Embarassed
- Envious
- Guilty
- Humiliated
- Hurt
- Jealous
- Love
- Sad
1b. Actions#
What are your actions?
- Avoiding Something
- Withdrawn, isolated, inactive
- CBT/ABC/Actions/Aggressive
- Binge-eating
- Escaping from a situation
- Putting off something (Procrastination)
- Seeking reassurance
- Taking alcohol or drugs.
- Using safety behaviors
2. Activating Event#
What happened? It can be a real external event that has occurred or an imaginary or anticipated event.
3. Beliefs#
Summarize your beliefs that relate to this event. Your thoughts, personal rules, biases, demands, meanings.
4. Thinking Error#
What was the thinking error if any?
- Mental filtering: acknowledging only what info is coherent with beliefs. Gather evidence, Examine your filters
- All-or-nothing thinking: a.k.a. thinking in black and white: Think like a thermometer.
- Always Right being wrong is unthinkable. Actively trying to prove one's actions or thoughts to be correct, and sometimes prioritizing self-interest over the feelings of another person. The facts that oneself has about their surroundings are always right while other people's opinions and perspectives are wrongly seen.
- Blaming The disproportionate level of blame is placed upon other people, rather than oneself. In this way, the person avoids taking personal responsibility, making way for a Victim Mentality
- Catastrophizing Taking a relatively minor event and imagining all sorts of distasters resulting from that one small event.
- Disqualifying The Positive Disqualifying the positive; Biased info processing at work. Be aware of responses to positive data. Practice accepting compliments with a simple thank you.
- Emotional Reasoning Emotional Reasoning: feelings aren't facts. Instead - note your thoughts. Give yourself time to allow for feelings to subside. Overlook the feelings if you can't find a source for them.
- Fortune Telling Fortune Telling: instead - test predictions, and be prepared to take risks. past experiences are not the same as future ones.
- Labelling Labelling: Allow for degrees. People are complex.
- Low Frustration Tolerance Low frustration tolerance: there are things that are difficult to tolerate and there are other things that are truly intolerable. Distinguish between the two. Push yourself to do things that are uncomfortable. Give your self messages that emphasize your ability to withstand pain.
- Making Demands: Thoughts and beliefs that contain words like must, should, need, ought, got to, and have to are often problematic because they are extreme and rigid. Inflexible demands on yourself others and the world means you don't adapt to reality as well as you could. Pay attention to language. Limit approval seeking. the world doesn;t play by your rules. Retain standards and ditch demands
- Mind Reading Mind reading: Tendency to assume that people are thinking negative things about you, or have bad intentions. Instead: Generate alternative reasons. Your guesses might be wrong. Get more information.
- Overgeneralizing Overgeneralizing: Get a little perspective. Suspend judgement. Be specific.
- Personalizing Personalizing: interpreting events as related to you and overlooking other factors. Instead: imagine other things that contributed to the outcome. Consider why people might be responding to you in a certain way.
5. Dispute#
Examine your negative thoughts more closely. Ask Dispute Questions, like:
- Is the meaning I am assigning to an event unduly extreme?
- Am I drawing global conclusions from a singular event?
- Is the meaning I am assigning to this event loaded against me?
- What are you feeling?
- Rate the effects of the alternative thoughts you generated on your emotions. Also note any alternative, healthier emotions you experience. (Concern, Annoyance, Sadness, Remorse, Disappointment, Sorrow)
- Dispute: Can I prove that my thought is 100% true?
- Dispute: What are the effects of thinking that way?
- Dispute: Is my thought logical and sensible?
- Dispute: Do people who's opinion I respect agree that this thought is realistic?
- Dispute: What evidence exists against these thoughts?
- Dispute: Is my thought balanced or extreme?
- Dispute: Is my thought rigid or flexible?
- Dispute: Am I thinking objectively and realistically or are my thoughts being biased by how I feel?
6. Effects#
6a. Emotions#
Rate the effects of the alternative thoughts you generated on your emotions. Also note any alternative, healthier emotions you experience. (Concern, Annoyance, Sadness, Remorse, Disappointment, Sorrow)