Category: Zero Thinking

Zero Thinking

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Hi, hope all of you all are doing well and taking care of your mental health. We have covered lot of topics so far. Let’s have a brief recap on it. Well so far we have understood mental health and emotional healing, we discussed what are emotions and different types of emotions. Later we touched upon what is anxiety and types of anxieties and what are phobias and types of phobias. I also hope that you have managed to do the small assignments that were given for yourself reflection and awareness. Now it’s time to dive into the process of identifying the problem on a deeper level.

As promised that I will discuss ways of healing. And one of the most effective ways of healing is to apply the CBT technique in your life. 

So what is?

 What is the CBT technique?

Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychological treatment. It helps us identify our problem by breaking it down into three steps which enables us to identify our

Thoughts

Actions 

And feelings

It is based on two simple concepts that our thoughts influence our emotions and our emotions influence behavior. So what we think affects what we feel and do in life. Also what happens to us in life doesn’t matter but how we choose to interpret it.

Albert Ellis is the great psychotherapist who came up with the ABC model.

The ABC model

A Stands for ‘activating event’. That event can be external, either present or future, or even an internal one. It refers to an event that triggers a chain of thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. 

For example, I love a man and his family finally sent theproposal to my house and they are coming to meet me. What will happen? What if they reject me? I would feel like a failure if they do.

B stands for “belief”. The beliefs or the demands we hold about ourselves or others hold about us. These can be rational or irrational.

What will my parents think and feel they reject me? They must like me. I must not be rejected. 

C stands for consequences. It is an all-inclusive term that can include emotional and physical experiences and especially the behavioral responses that result from A and B.

Difficulty in sleeping, fatigue, the tension in muscles. 

I hope that you have developed some basic understanding of the CBT technique. How about you apply this technique? It is an important exercise towards self-healing. I am attaching a link of a worksheet that will help you to apply this technique in your daily life. If you are mother it’s a request to do this exercise with your children. 

 In the next article, we will explore CBT differently. We will discover the types of unhealthy beliefs we hold about ourselves which automatically reflects in our actions. Till then take care and don’t forget to apply CBT technique. 

Anxiety

Anxiety By Tooba Tahir

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Hello there, how are you? I’m sure you have identified the type of anxiety you feel. If not, then please read the previous article so that you receive a better understanding of yourself. 

Today we will briefly discuss what are panic attacks and phobias. And later explore techniques to deal with them. So, let’s get started

So what do you think are panic attacks?

Panic Attack

Well, panic attacks arise suddenly, usually without warning, and often at the most inappropriate time and place. It is a sudden episode of fear that causes physical reactions. You might feel that you are losing control, having a heart attack, or dying.

Few signs of Panic Attack 

Sense of impending doom or danger, fear of loss of control or death, pounding heart rate, sweating, trembling, shortness of breath, chest pain, headache, dizziness, numbness, feeling of unreality or detachment.

The challenging part of panic attacks is the constant fear that it might occur again so people avoid the situations in which it might get triggered. 

What causes panic attacks?

There could be multiple reasons since they come suddenly without any warning, so they are mostly triggered by certain situations. Some panic attacks occur due to stress, Temperament that is prone to negative emotions, for example, unhealthy thinking habits or it can also be genetics. 

Now that we have a little understanding about Panic Attacks, lets briefly touch base on what are phobias?

What are Phobias?

In simple words, a phobia is an excessive or irrational fear reaction. Phobias can lead to panic attacks. There are many kinds of phobias and they can interfere with work, the educational and personal life of people. 

Few types of Phobias are:

Glossophobia: fear of speaking in front of an audience. 

Acrophobia: This is the fear of heights. 

Claustrophobia: This is a fear of enclosed or tight spaces. 

Aviophobia: This is also known as the fear of flying.

Dentophobia: Dentophobia is a fear of the dentist or dental procedures. 

Hemophobia: This is a phobia of blood or injury. A person with hemophobia may faint when they come in contact with their own blood or another person’s blood.

Arachnophobia: This means fear of spiders.

Cynophobia: This is a fear of dogs.

Ophidiophobia: People with this phobia fear snakes.

Nyctophobia: This phobia is a fear of the nighttime or darkness. It almost always begins as a typical childhood fear. When it progresses past adolescence, it’s considered a phobia.

Now that you know a bit about panic attacks and phobias, it’s a humble request to identify your phobias and notice the symptoms during panic attacks. It’s time to dig deep into self-reflection and ask yourself few questions like when I feel shortness of breath? When I am fearful? And write them on a piece of paper. In the next article, we will explore a case study to understand how we can manage our panic attacks and phobias. 

Till then stay strong. 

Types of Anxiety

Types of Anxiety By Tooba Tahir

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Hi, how are you doing? Hope you are doing well. In the previous article, we discussed what is anxiety and the difference between fear and anxiety. 

In today’s article, we will explore types of anxiety and end with a small exercise in which you need to identify what type of anxiety you face.

So let’s get started. 

Commonly there are three types of anxiety

Three most common types of anxiety:

Acute Anxiety

This is when you find yourself suffering from sudden fear or panic. Experiencing physical symptoms like heart palpations, shaking, sweating, dry mouth, muscle tension, fast shallow breathing. An example of acute anxiety can be phobias.  

Social Anxiety

It’s a condition in which one can become anxious and fearful where they have to socially interact with friends, strangers, or mostly a group. Or the anxiety one feels when they have to perform in front of people. 

General Anxiety

This relates to a person who is emotionally anxious as they are worried about what might happen in the future. They believe that they will be unable to cope with all the awful things that will happen to them. Thinking that they might be a failure. Its physical symptoms may include fatigue, sleep difficulties, nightmares, teeth grinding, and poor cognition.

If you are struggling with anxiety, you need to identify which type of anxiety I usually feel. The good news is that anxiety is treatable and manageable. 

To find out how anxiety is treatable, I request you to take some time out and figure out what type of anxiety you have. In the next article, we will explore panic attacks and phobias and later find out techniques to treat anxiety. Till then stay strong. 

Zero Thinking Femme رنگ

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Hi everyone, hope you all are doing well. In the previous article, we discussed what is mental health and emotional healing. If you missed out on that article, please go back and read it before you read this one.

Today we will be exploring what are emotions and what are the ways to identify them. Also, I will give you a small exercise towards the end, which will help you understand your emotions and yourself better. 

So what are emotions? 

To answer this we need to understand what the conscious and unconscious mind is. According to Freud “The conscious mind contains all of the thoughts, memories, feelings, and wishes of which we are aware at any given moment. The unconscious mind is a reservoir of feelings, thoughts, urges, and memories that are outside of our conscious awareness.[i] 

Emotions are intense feelings or sensations which can be triggered by conscious and unconscious events. They are connected to our thoughts and behaviors and play an important role in our lives. 

Emotions can be positive, negative, healthy, and unhealthy.

Positive emotions include joy, happiness, pleasure, love, contentment, and peace. We call them positive emotions as they make us feel positive about ourselves. 

Healthy negative emotions such as sadness help us cope with difficulties such as loss. But it helps us to come in terms with some loss in our lives.

Unhealthy negative emotions often impede us in dealing with such difficulties as we classify depression as negative emotions. They make us feel bad about ourselves. 

Whatever emotion we feel it has physical symptoms. For example, anger may mean clenched muscles or tension headaches, fear may lead to dry mouth or difficulties in breathing. 

Emotions are connected to our behaviors and are interwoven with our thoughts. We are most uncomfortable talking about how an event made us feel? In my teaching experience, men usually take more time than women to identify or reflect on their emotions. 

If we want to heal, we need to open our wounds. Let us start with the discussion on our childhood. Write down the events that created unhealthy negative or healthy negative emotions in your life. 

Here is the list of few emotions that can help you identify what emotions you experienced:

Unhealthy negative emotions

Anxiety

Depression

Hurt

Anger 

Shame

Guilt

Frustration 

Healthy negative emotions may include:

Concern 

Sadness

Remorse

Regret

Disappointment 

Annoyance 

Next time you hear me, I hope that you have taken some time out to do this exercise. And identified the negative emotions you have been carrying inside you.  

  [i] https://www.verywellmind.com/the-conscious-and-unconscious-mind-

 Emotions & types of emotions by DR Harry Barry

Written by Femmerang’s Mental Health Content Writer and Psychologist, Tooba Tahir

Zero Thinking

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We all go through times of emotional distress, isn’t it? We feel broken, hurt, shattered, disappointed, or numb. The list of emotions a human mind can experience can go on and on. Researchers identified 27 unique emotions [i] and you could be feeling any one of them or most of them.

On Zero thinking we will be discussing feelings of anxiety, depression, shame, guilt, hurt anger, and grief. And the role of our environment and relationships to make us feel this way. We will also investigate the role of childhood and its impact on the individual. 

Don’t worry we will not only be dissecting the problems, we will go step by step towards our emotional healing and well-being.

So are you ready? Let’s take some baby steps. We will start by understanding what is mental health and emotional healing. 

Mental health is a state in which you are connected with your body, mind, and soul. Mental health includes emotional, psychological, and social well-being. Mental health is important in every phase of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood. There could be many factors that contribute to mental health problems, including:

  • Biological factors, such as genes or brain chemistry
  • Life experiences, such as trauma or abuse
  • Family history of mental health problems

We will try to dig into these factors one by one and try to come towards emotional healing.

For that, we need to understand what is emotional healing? 

Dr Harry Barryexplainsemotional healing asa process and includes two components:

1. Identifying our emotional responses to any negative experience which has occurred in our life as our thinking patterns, perceptions, and beliefs underlying such emotions and finally the unhealthy patterns that came as a result of them.

2. After identifying these, how we reshape these thoughts, emotions, and behaviors with the goal of healing ourselves. 

We will one by one study emotions and its relation to our environment and its impact on our personality. 

And for that, you need to wait for the next article in which we will discuss what are emotions and how can we identify them. Till then have a good day. 

  [i] Cowen AS, Keltner D. Self-report captures 27 distinct categories of emotion bridged by continuous gradients.

Written by Femmerang’s Mental Health Content Writer and Psychologist, Tooba Tahir