Finding Negative Core Beliefs [deleted]

[anthony]

anthony submitted a new article:

[DLMURL="https://www.myptsd.com/c/articles/finding-negative-core-beliefs.42/"]Finding Negative Core Beliefs[/DLMURL] - How to identify your current negative belief that affects you symptomatically.

This is part of an article I wrote for the sexual abuse site, which should be listed here for members to find their negative core beliefs which are what cause our most constant symptoms.

This is based on a technique used for personality disorders called the "Downward Arrow Technique." The technique finds automatic thoughts, meaning your instinctive behavioural thoughts that you use which cause symptoms due to being a negative thought.

You don't apply this technique to all thoughts, just...

[DLMURL="https://www.myptsd.com/c/articles/finding-negative-core-beliefs.42/"]Read more about this article...[/DLMURL]

 

[Dissociation]

Thank you Anthony!

I've immediatly used this tecnique and I have found that the core thought of all my negative thoughts is the same.
The problem is that I have this thought for something that I really lived for a long period in my life, it's not just a belief.
It's very complicated.
But maybe, with this tecnique, I may help my T. to help me.
I have also found how big and how many are my fears; I already knew about my fears, but now I know about them at such an extent that they will be my priority number 1.
Thank you again.

 

[xenia]

"It means there's something wrong with me and that I'm not able to take care of myself.
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So the core belief is now self admission that the person has a problem, so they just broke through a denial barrier in order to admit to a negative aspect that they can now work towards changing. Having that true negative core belief provides you the foundation to begin focusing upon for correction, for change within your life."

I think here that it could be broken down further. In the sentence "It means there's something wrong with.me, i'm not able to take care of myself" The first clause: "It means there is something wrong with me" could be an automatic core belief that is linked to the clausal thought :"i'm not able to take care of myself." So it's not just a denial issue, or that someone is trying to get people to do things for them...it could stem from a type of implanted feeling of low self-worth that undermines a person's ability to take care of themselves, which affects their relationships with people. Actually I think the second clause, is the thought, and the first clause is the feeling-thought attached to it.

I think the point is that this technique can be used to get past denial barriers.

Nonetheless, this is a very good article. Thanks for posting! :)

 

[anthony]

I think the point is that this technique can be used to get past denial barriers.

It can... though many can't clearly put their finger on the cause of their issues, as most people think only present and past tense, and not focus on what is actually bothering them.

If you run this process on many who have childhood abuse from a parent, many will find it is not the abuse that is bothering them most, but instead how that parent or guardian betrayed them, their trust, so dearly. The role of a parent is to protect their children as much as possible and help them find their path in life, not to screw them up as much as possible and betray every moral fibre of trust possible. Many with childhood abuse, using this technique, would likely identify such personal problems being their core issue/s versus the actual traumatic events themselves. The childhood brain is very forgiving, thus the trauma doesn't do the damage as much as people think it does, instead the trauma the caused the irreparable trust and betrayal problems, does the damage. It is often masked by the traumatic events within an adult brain. A child would likely identify it easier than an adult who understands complex states, which can confuse easily.

 

[Tanishq]

If you run this process on many who have childhood abuse from a parent, many will find it is not the abuse that is bothering them most, but instead how that parent or guardian betrayed them, their trust, so dearly.

This always angers me most.

I will find a way to deal with this and solve it.

Edit: That's also true about damage of trust. It's massive. One can't measure it even. I won't trust them bad parents I had. I just can't now. I forgave them in past in hope they will show little understanding to me, instead they never showed any understanding towards me.

I guess childhood abuse always hurts in long run. Especially in adult years.

 

[scatteredfrustrated]

This is brilliant. Practical, achievable focussed ways out of the swamp. Years and years of therapy has just left me swimming in my trauma...have long been desperate for a way for I and my CPTSD friends to climb out of the pit and move on. Thanks so much.

 

[Dissociation]

Using this process I found that the core of each problem of mine is the fear. I have been abused a lot and in many ways.

 

[SeanCharles]

Thank You Anthony!

This is something similar I had done previously in a peer support program I participated in and also moved into facilitating, we were given a similar tool we used to separate and examine our thoughts/feelings which are indeed two very different things. Some people, I know your aware of, like to express thoughts as feelings and vice versa. I definitely am going to make use of this for myself.

 

[SeanCharles]

The tool I didn't mention above is an awareness wheel. I don't know that means anything or if it is another way of doing this Downward Arrow Technique.

 

[anthony]

There are many ways to find problems, it just depends what depth they reach, and what specifically the technique targets. Using a depression technique may be good for finding anxiety, but not for isolating a core root issue, for example. Vice versa. The technique above is used in personality disorders to help them identify the specific root problem in their past that affects them in the present, which is very similar to PTSD... and some with PTSD also have personality disorders, thus it is a cross-over technique that can be used to find the core root issue in a simple manner by the person themselves.

 

[SeanCharles]

Ah! Okay. The awareness wheel I mentioned above was from a peer-support program to assist with dealing grief involving divorce, separation, and widowed folk. It's nice to be discovering new tools and techniques as I am finding here.

 

[Changing4Best]

Thanks Anthony, I'm doing this one. I started a journal, hand written, because I don't remember stuff for long, and so I need to grab this thing and use it immediately.