ABC…D - Dispute - How to dispute those pessimistic thoughts

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Over the last few weeks we have looked at the ABCDs of pessimistic thoughts.

With the two Ds being

• Distraction and

• Disputation.

Today we’ll look further into how to dispute your pessimistic explanations.

There are four tacks to dispute these.

• Evidence?

• Alternatives?

• Implications?

• Usefulness?

To take us through these tacks, Seligman uses the example that your boss frowns at you when you present a report.

Evidence:

Take on a detective role.

Look for evidence before and against the belief.

• What is the evidence?

You’ll often find that you have jumped to the worst possible conclusion with no evidence or the thinnest hunch.

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In the example,

• Do you know that your boss has read your report?

• Do you know that anything is wrong with the report?

Alternatives:

• Are there any other ways to look at the challenge?

• Is your boss in a bad mood? Was he up all night?

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By generating several alternatives, you can scan the evidence for each one.

Implications:

• What if you are right?

• Is it the end of the world?

• If your boss frowned due to the report, what does that mean?

• It might be bad but it is not necessarily a catastrophe.

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Usefulness:

Sometimes it is the usefulness rather than the explanation that is what really matters.

• Is thinking about the problem now going to do any good?

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If not:

• Do something physically distracting.

• Schedule a specific time for thinking things over.

• Write them down so you can return them on your own terms.

Try these techniques next time you sense adversity.

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