I remember when I hit on the first exercise to help me with Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy. I believe it was the called the "rating scale
technique" in Feeling Good by David Burns.
I went from depression to serenity in a few minutes. I was amazed a
simple exercise with three lines and a mark in the middle could change
my mood so dramatically. It felt like magic.
I completely changed my outlook in a moment by seeing what I was doing
to myself verbally on paper. I couldn't believe I was being so
irrational once I actually changed to the rational thought and saw the
irrational thought from the other side. I was blowing things all out
of proportion and making a mountain out of a molehill. Do you ever do
that? Try the rating scale technique.
I fell back into depression a few times after that happened, but I
knew I had found the way out if I just kept using the techniques in
Feeling Good and elsewhere.
The biggest mistake I made when I was first starting out was not doing
the exercises every day. I would wait until my mood was really bad
before working on it when I could have been working on it every day
and inoculating myself to future depressive episodes. Once I figured
that out it was just a matter of doing the exercises.
I know that if I would have been taking a medication I wouldn't have
had so much confidence in CBT. I would have always wondered if the
techniques were really that good and doubted my own ability to get
myself out of the most debilitating moods.
I hope when you get tired of going up and down the emotional
rollercoaster and switching from one med to the next you will take my
advice and do the things that I have suggested.

I remember when I hit on the first exercise to help me with Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy. I believe it was the called the "rating scale
technique" in Feeling Good by David Burns.
I went from depression to serenity in a few minutes. I was amazed a
simple exercise with three lines and a mark in the middle could change
my mood so dramatically. It felt like magic.
I completely changed my outlook in a moment by seeing what I was doing
to myself verbally on paper. I couldn't believe I was being so
irrational once I actually changed to the rational thought and saw the
irrational thought from the other side. I was blowing things all out
of proportion and making a mountain out of a molehill. Do you ever do
that? Try the rating scale technique.
I fell back into depression a few times after that happened, but I
knew I had found the way out if I just kept using the techniques in
Feeling Good and elsewhere.
The biggest mistake I made when I was first starting out was not doing
the exercises every day. I would wait until my mood was really bad
before working on it when I could have been working on it every day
and inoculating myself to future depressive episodes. Once I figured
that out it was just a matter of doing the exercises.
I know that if I would have been taking a medication I wouldn't have
had so much confidence in CBT. I would have always wondered if the
techniques were really that good and doubted my own ability to get
myself out of the most debilitating moods.
I hope when you get tired of going up and down the emotional
rollercoaster and switching from one med to the next you will take my
advice and do the things that I have suggested.

I remember when I hit on the first exercise to help me with Cognitive
Behavioral Therapy. I believe it was the called the "rating scale
technique" in Feeling Good by David Burns.