The Cognitive Component of Shame - Cognitive Distortions

This is such a very important aspect of the recovery process for someone who is shame-bound (as all eating disorder sufferors are). The emotion of shame causes extreme thought process distortions leading the individual into thinking and ultimately believing false truths about themselves. There is a definable 'language of shame' often heard through individual's thoughts about themselves. It can be described as the critical derogatory punitive self-talk that ulitmately undermines any self of self-respect, negativity about the self that renders one incapable of believing anything positive about the self and ultimately leading to extreme black and white thinking. These thought processes foreclose the individual to thinking that there is anything positive about the self ensuring the individual requires the need for alternative (often self-destructive and addictive in nature) coping skills. These are utilized as means to stabilize the internal devastation caused by the faulty thought processes. Today we will begin looking at this reactionary behavior to this excrutionally emotionally painful experience of shame.