Cognitive Behaviour Therapy mini-epiphany

    Having completed a recent course of Behavioural Activation 'therapy', I agreed to be referred for CBT as a next step.

    And so far I'm having about as good an experience of it as I had in my younger days (which you can read about, if you haven't already, on my earlier post entitled Dialectical Behaviour Therapy, about 2/5 of the way down the page).

    (I'm 2 sessions in as I write, the 1st being a general chat about what I hope to achieve from CBT).

    I did have a small epiphany after session 2, though.  To my surprise.

    We were talking about how irritability is a symptom of my depression / fatigue / life-stuff.  And the therapist asked me what I could do when I felt an attack of irritation coming on.  At the time I wasn't sure how to answer the question.

    After the session, however, I came up with something while mulling it over.  And that is: take a second.

    It sounds simple, and theoretically it is.  But if I can only remember to say this to myself I can hopefully interrupt the pattern of exploding at people when feeling irritable (after which I always feel terrible).

    It can be abbreviated to T.A.S.  And then I can annotate it on e.g. my work notebook as a daily reminder.  And no-one else has to know what it means (unless of course they ask, as some will inevitably do).  I can even get myself some Tasmanian Devil merch to have on me when I go out etc.  (Wiley Coyote is my favourite, but I'll settle for Tas.)

    (Also, by the way, whilst Googling for Tasmanian Devil merch, those little Tasmanian devil critters are actually quite adorable!  I'd no idea!)

    So, this is what I shall start doing.  Of course, it requires more than just taking a second.  I need to use that second, and then the ensuing ones, to diffuse the impending explosion.  To ask myself, as the therapist said, is it worth the guilt of snapping at someone and then feeling terrible after?  (Which is a nope.)

    But I hope it'll be a good start.  And, it'll give me something the tell the therapist in the next session.

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