Self-help program

Here is an example:

1. The thought “I’m bad at this” leads to feelings of low mood.
2. The feeling of low mood causes physical sensations, such as a feeling of heaviness in the chest or tearfulness.
3. Unpleasant feelings and sensations lead to avoiding situations and staying at home.
4. Staying at home, in turn, is likely to increase thoughts of inadequacy, because new, alternative, and potentially positive experiences do not occur.

5. In this way, thoughts, emotions, physical sensations, and the behavior that follows them form a self-reinforcing and harmful vicious cycle.

   Where to get help?

   Emotions, such as low mood, are often difficult to change directly. Therefore, you can work with difficult emotions in the following ways:

• by challenging one’s own thoughts
• by changing one’s behavior