TOOLBOX: Recognize Cognitive Distortions

I don't know about you, but I'm pretty much never alone, even when mine is the only body in the room.  I'm not talking about God, but of the voices I carry with me everywhere.  No, I do not have multiple personality disorder.  I'm talking about what some might refer to as  your conscience, although mine seems to be more divided.  I want to introduce you to them because they will come up in future posts.

These components of the constant chatter in my head are all me, of course, just different aspects of myself, different flavors of Julie.  I have "The Critic," who is constantly examining every aspect of my thoughts and behavior, looking for a mistake

TOOLBOX: Light box therapy

Sun. Photo courtesy of gr33n3gg, Flickr.

What's in your "toolbox" for coping with the symptoms and stresses of living with anxiety and/or depression?  I will be going through various tools one by one, so if you see a post labeled with "Toolbox" you'll know it's one of these.  

Sometimes it is a good idea to have a note to yourself listing all the tools (physical and mental) that you have at your disposal when you find yourself in the middle of a panic attack or depressive episode so you don't have to think about what to do.  You can just go down the list.


Perhaps you are familiar with the term S.A.D. or Seasonal Affective Disorder?  It is a type of depression that occurs mainly in the fall and winter (in the Northern hemisphere, opposite for you all down South) when days get shorter and nights get longer.  This might be your entire problem or it could be an aspect of a larger depressive disorder or accompanied by anxiety or other issues.  One way S.A.D. is treated is by using light box therapy,

The Payoff of Laziness?

The Paper Source: Cupcake Apron

 So the other night I came up with around 45 possible topics and I don't want to do any one of them right now.  So I'm just going to go with the events of the day and see where the stream of consciousness takes me.  Hopefully I won't ramble too badly.


My daughter is in bed with me.  She just came in. Apparently she's cold.  She may have just been missing me.  I was not home for bedtime tonight as I was attending my Women's Cognitive Therapy Group.  This is the group to which the X and Y post's exercise belongs.  I came away with two assignments:

1) Choose a body part each day that I can accept for just that day without judgement.

2) Come up with a list of the payoffs of inactivity in the household to me.  What's in it for me when I decline to do the chores I need to do, considering that I then feel really bad about it. 

SIGH.  I suppose I can do this.  I don't know about the body part thing.