Ask the Therapist
"Automatic Thinking" and DBT
Hi, Mr. Formica,
I tried to explain to my DBT therapist that sometimes I stop thinking when I have a problem. Do
you understand? I tried saying its a bit like the time when you are driving a car on a familiar route and
you drive a distance and suddenly think how did I get here? Cause you don't remember
driving or sceneries or traffic or anything. Its like that in a way except I don't
go anywhere. Do you understand? How can I say it better cause my therapist didn't
understand.
What you are describing is called "automatic thinking". In the case of physical activity, it allows us to drive a familiar route, as you describe, ride a bike, drive a standard shift, etc. Our subconscious mind takes over the activity in question and allows our conscious mind to be free to continue to interact with our environment without distraction.
In the case of confronting an issue or problem, this is more properly termed "denial". What happens is that the response to anxiety or stress is so ingrained that we flip into "autopilot", as it were, and simply don't address what we are experiencing emotionally at a conscious level. We "tune out". In some ways its a defense mechanism...we are ignoring what we can't handle. In some ways it's an avoidance...if it ain't broke don't fix it -- no matter how destructive or inappropriate the "don't fix it" might be.
The great benefit of DBT is that it is so flexible. If a therapist gets locked into the "cognitive re-programming" aspect of the treatment, where they are stuck on "thinking through and reframing" rather than "feeling and experiencing" (the being in the moment part), however, it can be less effective. It may well be that your therapist is expecting you to be able to address the problem that you are confronting before you can "be" with it. You may have to backtrack a bit in the application of the technique for it to be effective in the way that s/he expects.
