Shy No Longer

Module 5

The ABC's of Thinking and Feeling
Introduction

2Analysing Your ABC's

2

How to Uncover Unhelpful Thoughts

4

Clarifying the A’s, B’s, and C’s

6

The Thought Diary

7

Module Summary

8

About the Modules

9

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Module 5: The ABC's of Thinking and Feeling

Page 1Shy No LongerIntroduction
So we have seen that thinking affects how we feel about things. If we are feeling happy and excited, chancesare, we have been thinking positive thoughts and about positive things. On the other hand, if we are feelinganxious, depressed, and upset, it is likely that we have been thinking negative thoughts. We call theseunhelpful thoughts (simply because they lead to unpleasant feelings or unhelpful actions!). All of us, attimes, think things that make us feel sad or anxious, and that is a normal part of life. However, if you often
feel distressed or anxious, you might need to examine your thinking to improve how you feel. To do that,let’s start by learning about a new set of ABC’s.
The “A” part of the ABC is the “Activating event”. It is the event or situation that
“activates” how we think and feel about something.
The “B” part of the ABC refers to “Beliefs”. In the previous module, we talked about how
our thoughts and beliefs influence our emotions about a situation. If we think about asituation in different ways it leaves us feeling in different ways.
The “C” part of the ABC refers to “Consequences”. As we talked about, one type ofconsequence is how our beliefs lead to us feeling a particular way about a situation. Anotherconsequence of those thoughts might be physical symptoms such as heart pounding, orsweating.
If unhelpful thoughts lead to distressing emotions, then it might be quite reasonable to say that the mosteffective thing to do is to change those unhelpful thoughts to helpful ones! So, how can you do that? To
start influencing the way you feel, you need to learn to be aware of, and “capture,” those unhelpful
thoughts and beliefs, with the ultimate aim of changing them. To do that, let’s start with doing an ABCanalysis.

Analysing your ABC’s
When you’re analysing the ABC process, it helps to write it all down. Have you ever noticed that whenyour thoughts and feelings “swim” around in your head, it can get quite confusing? Writing down what
happened helps to clarify your thoughts and feelings, and how they are connected.
The ABC analysis begins with identifying the activating event. Simply write down anevent or a situation in which you experienced a strong negative emotion, such as,anxiety. Record the situation the same way a video camera might record — just thefacts. This may be either an actual event or situation leading to unpleasant feelings, suchas “Walking into a room at a party”. It may also be a mental picture or recollection,
leading to unpleasant feelings, such as “Remembering the party on Saturday night”. Do
not include your thoughts about why the situation occurred, who was responsible andhow you felt about it. Just describe the event simply, without any ‘frills.’

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Shy No LongerNow, because how you respond to a situation can stand out clearly, the next step is toidentify the consequences. This includes
1. Your feelings. Write down the words that best describe your feelings. When you havewritten down these words, rate the intensity of the emotion from 0 to 100. The
higher the number, the more intensely you felt the emotion. Now, have a look at
all those feelings and then choose the feeling that best represents theemotion you actually felt at the time and underline it.
2. Your physical symptoms. Physical symptoms are often quite strong in anxious situations, so record thephysical reactions that you notice, such as heart racing, breathlessness, sweating, and so on.
3. Your actions/behaviour. You may also want to note any actions that you carried out, for example, if you
avoided people, or left the situation.
Now, keeping in mind the situation and the feelings you experienced, identify your‘Beliefs’ or thoughts, expectations, perceptions, and attitudes. Beliefs and thoughts are
best described as “self-talk”, or what you say to yourself in response to a situation orevent. Write these thoughts down. Ask yourself:•“What was I thinking of when the event occurred?”•“What was going through my mind at the time?”

When you have completed this task, read through each statement and then underline thethought that is most associated with the primary emotion you felt during the ‘A‘. We’ll now
call it your hot thought. Now rate how much you believe this thought on a scale from 0 to 100.
Let’s look at an example. Imagine walking into a party and feeling anxious. To do an ABC analysis, youmight ask yourself, "How am I making myself anxious? What am I thinking?" You might identify a thoughtsuch as, "I don’t want to be here." If you only had this thought, you’d probably not experience a strong
emotion but only feel mildly anxious. If you do experience a strong emotional response to this thought, it
probably indicates that there are other thoughts underlying this thought. Therefore, the thought, "I don’t
want to be here" is only an initial thought, and you would need to discover what other unhelpful thoughts
were present to invoke such a strong emotional response.

Turtle Tip
Doing an ABC
analysis is an excellent
way to discover yourthoughts and how
they influence yourfeelings. By using it
consistently you’ll getbetter at managing
your anxiety.

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How to Uncover Unhelpful Thoughts
By asking yourself a number of questions, you can uncover any other unhelpful thoughts underlying an initialthought. Let’s use the example of being at the party to identify the unhelpful thoughts underlying the initialthought "I don't want to be here." The following is a description of the thoughts that might be going
through your head as you uncover other unhelpful thoughts. The questions in bold are your unhelpful
thought discovery questions.

"I don't want to be here".
"I don't want to be here because…""People will look at me and notice that I am anxious”"…and that is bad because…""Well, they will think something is wrong with me""…and what is bad about that..?""….They will think I'm crazy!""…and what does that say about me?""…..that I must be crazy."Your task is to become an expert at identifying your unhelpful thoughts. Sometimes, one or two thoughts
might not represent the other unhelpful ones you might have had. As such, to get to those other thoughts,
you might need to ask some of the following questions, called Thought Discovery Questions:“What is bad about that?”“What is it that I see happening in this situation?”“What am I concluding about myself or others in this situation?”“… and that is bad because …”“… and what does this say about me …?”

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It is best to be as specific as you can, even if some of your unhelpful thoughts sound stupid or embarrassing
when you think about them. Discovering your unhelpful thoughts, no matter how silly they sound, is
important in learning how to better manage your mood.
After you have done this, we will tackle the issue of where we go from here. At this point, it is importantthat you understand how to identify your feelings and thoughts surrounding a particular situation, especially
one in which you experienced unhelpful emotions. Unhelpful, or disturbed emotions are those that elicit astronger physiological reaction in your body, such as a tightness in the chest associated with anxiety, or an
increase in blood pressure associated with anger. Emotions such as depression, guilt, fear, rage, andanxiety, may also lead to avoidance and destructive behaviours towards yourself and others, They may
obstruct appropriate problem solving behaviours, and may cause long term physiological (e.g., hypertensionand heart disease) and psychological harm (e.g., psychiatric problems).
Doing the ABC analysis is taking the first step toward learning how to manage your mood (includinganxiety) and helping yourself feel better. Here’s an example of an ABC analysis recorded on a Thought
Diary:Thought Diary (example)
A

Activating EventB

This may be either: An actual event or asituation, a thought, a mental picture orrecollection.

CBeliefs

At my brother’s place and afriend of his drops by. Hestarts talking to me.

List all statements that link A to C. Ask
yourself: “What was I thinking?” “What was I
saying to myself?” “What was going throughmy head at the time?”
2. Find the most distressing (hot) thought andunderline it
3. Rate how much you believe this thought
between 0 to 100.

Consequences“I wish he wouldn’t talk to me”

1. Write down words describing how you feel.
2. Underline the one that is most associatedwith the activating event.
3. Rate the intensity of those feelings (0 to 100).

“He will notice that I look like a'nervous wreck'”

Anxious (70)

“I will sound stupid if I talk tohim”

Irritated (40)1.

1.

Jot down any physical sensations you
experienced or actions carried out.

- Heart pounding,sweating,fast breathing- Avoided eye contact

Thought discovery question: “… and what
does this mean?”“He will think I’m an idiot” (85)At the end of this module is a Thought Diary for you to start doing an ABC analysis and recording yourunhelpful thoughts. When you’re completing the thought diary it may be handy to take another look at
those Thought Discovery Questions to try to really pinpoint which unhelpful thoughts are most connectedto those strong emotions. Before you do that though, let’s clarify the ABC’s.

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CLARIFYING THE A’S, B’S AND C’S.
When you are first starting to try to break down an anxious experience into the components of A, B, andC, it can be easy to confuse them. We frequently talk about thoughts and feelings as though they are thesame sort of experience: “I feel like you’re don’t pay me enough attention”, instead of separating them: “Ithink that you don’t pay me enough attention, and I feel hurt about that”. Also, it is quite common for athought or a memory to be an activating event or situation. For example, thinking about asking your bossfor some time off (A) might lead to thoughts about being criticised (B), which then leads to anxious feelings(C). The following exercise can help you to clarify what are activating events, thoughts and emotions.

Is it a Situation, Thought or Emotion?
Situation, Thought or Emotion?
1.

Nervous

2.

Talking to my friend on the phone3.

Something terrible is going to happen

4.

Sitting in a restaurant

5.

They think I'm silly

6.

Panic

7.

I'm sure this won't work out

8.

Anxious9.

Shopping for my groceries

10. Fearful
11. Remembering the conversation with my workmate
12. Irritated
13. I shouldn’t be treated this way
14. Thinking about the party next week
15. They’re all going to laugh at meforCentrelinicalC Interventions• Psychotherapy • Research • Training

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Thought Diary
A Activating Event

B Beliefs

This may be either: An actual event or
situation, a thought, mental picture or
recollection.

1.
2.

3.

List all statements that link A to C. Ask yourself:“What was I thinking?” “What was I saying to myself?”“What was going through my head at the time?”
Find the most distressing (hot) thought and underline itRate how much you believe this thought between 0 to100.

C Consequences
1. Write down words describing how youfeel.
2. Underline the one that is most associatedwith the activating event.
3. Rate the intensity of those feelings (0to 100).

1.

Jot down any physical sensations you
experienced or actions carried out.

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Module Summary•Assessing the thinking-feeling connection involves analysing the ABC's of thinking andfeeling. In this process, A stands for "Activating Event", B stands for "Beliefs" and C stands
for "Consequences". The ABC analysis assesses how you feel and what you think inparticular situations by using a thought diary, and following these steps:•Activating Event: The ABC analysis begins with writing down an event or a situationin which you experienced a strong negative emotion, such as, anxiety. Record thesituation the same way a video camera might record — just the facts.

•Consequences: This often stands out most clearly, so writing down theconsequences happens next. This includes writing down what physical symptoms youexperienced, your actions and behaviours in the situation and what emotions/feelings
you experienced. This includes underlining and rating the intensity of the emotion thatbest represents what you felt at the time - the primary emotion.

•Beliefs: Finally, the ABC analysis explores the thoughts that led to these feelings. This
includes writing down beliefs and thoughts, such as what was going through your mind
at the time. It is important to identify the hot thought, which is the thought most
associated with the primary emotion, by underlining it and rating how much youbelieve that thought.

•Sometimes hot thoughts underly initial thoughts. By asking yourself some thought
discovery questions, you can uncover any other unhelpful thoughts. These questions
include asking yourself “What is bad about that?” and “What is it that I see happening inthis situation?” and “… and that is bad because …”.

•It is also important to clarify what is an activating event, what is a belief, and what is aconsequence, such as feelings.

•Using your thought diary to analyse the ABC's surrounding a social situation in which you
have felt anxious is the beginning of learning to change how you feel in those situations.

In the next module we will
look more closely at ourthought patterns – or what
we might call “unhelpfulthinking styles”.

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About The Modules
BACKGROUNDThis module was created in 2003 by Patrick Kingsep at the Centre for Clinical Interventions, under thesupervision of the Centre’s Founding Director, Paula Nathan.
The concepts and strategies in these modules have been developed from evidence-based psychologicalpractice, primarily Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy (CBT). CBT for social anxiety is based on the approachthat anxiety is a result of problematic cognitions (thoughts) and behaviours.

REFERENCES

These are some of the professional references used to create the modules in this information package.
Clark, D. M., & Wells, A. (1995). A cognitive model of social phobia. In R. G. Heimberg, M. R. Liebowitz, D.
A. Hope, & F. R. Schneier (Eds.), Social phobia: Diagnosis, assessment and treatment (pp. 69–93). New
York: Guilford Press.
Heimberg, R. G. & Becker, R. E. (2002). Cognitive-behavioral group therapy for social phobia. New York: Guilford
Press.
Rapee, R. M., & Heimberg, R. G. (1997). A cognitive-behavioral model of anxiety in social phobia. Behaviour Researchand Therapy, 35, 741–756.

“SHY NO LONGER”
This module forms part of:Kingsep, P., & Nathan, P. (2003). Shy No Longer. Perth, Western Australia: Centre for ClinicalInterventions.

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