Get your Greek on…

Did you know that much of CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) is based on the work of the Athenian philosophers (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle)?  One common skill taught in CBT is Socratic questions which can be used as a means of stepping away from our initial (and provocative) interpretation of an event and coming to a more reasonable conclusion.

Socratic reasoning takes a conclusion (or anything really) and begins with a  process of asking open-ended questions.  This can be helpful when we are struggling with depression or anxiety because we are more likely to come to the worst possible meaning of a thing and hold onto it as truth.  Let’s take an experience someone with social anxiety may have.

Someone with social anxiety may enter into a room of people and become aware of people turning their attention to them as they enter.  An automatic thought might look like….

“Why are they staring at me?  There must be something wrong with how I look.”

Stepping back and applying Socratic questions might sound something like..

“Are there other reasons that would explain why they turned their head when I entered the room?”

“How do people normally react when someone new comes into a room?”

“What makes me assume, that if they are judging me, that all the judgments are critical?”

“If some or even many of the judgments are critical, what would that mean?  What impact would that really have on my life?”

The idea here is to cultivate a habit of scrutiny when automatic thoughts that lead to an increase in ineffective behaviors (avoidance, isolation) pop up.