Irrational Thoughts Do Not Equal Positive Thoughts

From social anxiety disorders to violence in interpersonal relationships or post-traumatic stress, the Socratic debate on irrational thoughts and their modification stands as a clear objective in most of the consultations that are carried out in the field of psychology.

Cognitive restructuring is one of the quintessential techniques of all psychological treatment. It even seems to have crossed the pronounced frontiers of the different psychological models and currents, always confronted by knowing which is the most legitimate, the most useful, the most effective.

In cognitive restructuring, which can be put into practice from the evaluation itself and be useful until the end of the therapy, it seeks to detect the irrational thoughts of the individual, propose alternative thoughts regarding that same idea, and what is more relevant, than the person is able to see the impact of these irrational thoughts on their mood, their later cognitions and their behaviors.

As cognitive restructuring is practiced, it is understood that the individual will be able to detect their own irrational thoughts and propose much more appropriate substitute thoughts.

However, when it comes to developing such more accurate thoughts, people often get confused by proposing positive thoughts instead of rational thoughts.

Differences between irrational and rational thoughts

An irrational thought is defined as one that elicits highly unpleasant emotional responses. These can range from anger to bitterness or terror, they are long-lasting and are presented in absolutist terms (with the use of adverbs like never or always). In turn, this is related to what one needs to be happy or what one should be, do or have, that is, with self-imposed demands.

In addition, they are usually unprovable or verifiable thoughts. On the contrary, rational thoughts are presented as testable, which generate emotions of much lower intensity (instead of anger, disgust; instead of bitterness, resignation; instead of terror, fear), posed in terms of non-imperative conditionals that keep it from being a necessity.

It is important to emphasize that anger is not replaced by happiness, bitterness by satisfaction, or terror by anger. A rational thought has to be realistic and adjusted

Practical example: Patricia is fired

For example, let’s imagine that a 40-year-old woman, her name is Patricia, loses her job in a bank office. The irrational thoughts that can harass Patricia are: “I will never find a job again”, “I am useless”, “I should have worked longer hours”. As we have seen previously, one can observe, among other aspects, absolutist terms without a demonstrable empirical basis and in terms of necessity or should.

With practice, Patricia can, in the face of this same situation, propose alternative rational thoughts that are much more appropriate to the situation, such as: “I don’t know if I will find work again, but I will do everything possible to get it”, “I have lost my job but that does not mean that I am a useless person, they have simply dispensed with me and it has nothing to do with my worth as a person ”,“ I could have worked longer hours but I don’t even know if that has influenced my dismissal ”.

On this occasion , absolute terms are not observed, hasty conclusions from inferences or pejorative labels to oneself from an external event.

Misadjusted positive thinking

It may also happen that Patricia does not know how to substitute those irrational thoughts in an adequate way, or that the explanation or the guidelines that have been given are not appropriate, and that she believes that in this situation the alternative to irrational thoughts is: “tomorrow I will find a job and earn the same as in the bank ”,“ I am the best worker there is and my abilities far exceed those of the rest ”,“ I am sure that working longer hours has nothing to do with my dismissal and that I have only It happened because the boss doesn’t like me ”.

Contrary to what is promulgated in popular culture, thinking positive does not mean that everything will turn out the way you want, and therefore these types of thoughts present traps. TO

Authors such as Barbara Ehrenreich or Derren Brown already speak of the harmful part of an extremely positive and systematic thinking, since it hides deceptions that can turn those thoughts into ideas that are also very inappropriate and unrealistic and that are again based on attributions and inferences without empirical validity .

Rational versus  positive, something to work on in session

It is vitally important to make judgments in a fair way. Irrational thoughts can be negative, in fact the vast majority are, but they can also be positive. While the former can lead to exacerbated emotional responses when raising them, the latter can also lead to overly intense emotional expressions by not being fulfilled or by generating excessive expectations by not being based on facts and truthful information and by considering themselves in terms absolute.

It is also relevant that, in session, special attention is paid to the conception of the individual, and that he understands the parameters from which a rational thought is built. To do this, it is recommended at first to practice with examples or metaphors in session, and then work on irrational thoughts of the person himself.

Therefore, it insists on prior training so that when automating the proposal in the day-to-day of alternative thoughts we have the certainty that it is being carried out in the most convenient, effective and useful way for the person.