‘Unless I am loved I am worthless, distinguishing your thoughts from facts.

People’s emotions and behaviours are influenced by their perceptions of events. It is not a situation in and of itself that determines what people feel but rather the way in which they construe a situation’ (Beck, 1964). In other words, how people feel is determined by the way in which they interpret situations rather than by the situations per se.

Automatic thoughts often include overestimations of risk and underestimations of ability to cope.

Early experiences (e.g. rejection by parents) contribute to the development of core beliefs, which lead to the development of dysfunctional assumptions (e.g. ‘Unless I am loved I am worthless’), 

The aim might be to distinguish thoughts from facts.

Safety behaviour around anxiety and fear of a panic attack are not advised experiments are also used to help patients gather evidence against the use of ‘safety behaviours’ (Salkovskis, 1996), which are avoidance and escape behaviours. Within the cognitive model, safety behaviours reinforce anxiety as they make disconfirmation of dysfunctional assumptions and negative automatic beliefs impossible.