Thought check: look at one thought from both sides

Where this worksheet comes from

A worksheet like this is called a thought record. Therapists who practise cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) give versions of it to the people they work with. This one is our own plain version, with our own wording. Nobody who is trained in CBT has reviewed it.

The idea is to slow down: to set what happened next to what you made of it, and to look at both sides before you settle on what it means.

How the page works

• Only the thought itself has to be filled in. Every other box can stay empty.
• You can keep a thought half done and come back to it with Change.
• The numbers from 0 to 10 are your own. The page shows them next to each other, before and after. It does not add them up, and it does not call one number good and another bad.
• The day on each thought is the day you first kept it, by this device’s clock.
• The page holds up to 100 thoughts and keeps them until you erase them.

Nine habits of thought that have names

CBT has names for some common habits of thought. Here are nine, in our own words. They are common. Finding one in a thought is not a fault, and it does not prove the thought is untrue.

• All or nothing. “If it is not perfect, I failed.”
• Jumping to the worst. “This will end in disaster.”
• Reading minds. “They think I am stupid.”
• Telling the future. “It will go badly, so there is no point in trying.”
• Taking a feeling as proof. “I feel useless, so I am useless.”
• Shoulds and musts. “I should be able to cope by now.”
• Labels. “I am a failure”, said about one mistake.
• Passing over the good. “That went well, but it does not count.”
• Taking all the blame. “It is my fault”, said about something many people had a hand in.

When the thought is true

Some hard thoughts are true. “I cannot pay the rent this month” may be a plain fact. A worksheet does not change a fact, and this page does not ask you to talk yourself out of one. If the thought still stands after you have looked at both sides, the last box, One small thing I can do, is the one that matters.

• One step at a time breaks a problem into steps small enough to start.
• Money help is for bills that cannot be paid.
• If the thought is “I am not safe at home” or “it is my fault that they hurt me”, open Home safety. Being hurt by someone is not a habit of thought.

When another page fits better

• In the middle of panic, writing is hard. Start with Panic or Breathe, and come back here when it has passed.
• Thoughts you do not want that come back again and again, with things you feel you have to do to make them stop: this worksheet was not written with those in mind. OCD says more.
• If you cannot tell what is real, or you hear or see things that other people do not, open Psychosis.
• If you hurt yourself, or want to, open Self-harm.
• If a thought like this has been with you most days for weeks, Depression and Anxiety describe what help there is, and Low-cost care is about finding care when money is short.

What this page can’t do

• It does not answer. Nothing on the page reads your words or replies to them.
• It does not decide whether a thought is true. You do.
• It makes no promise that filling it in changes how you feel. Sometimes the numbers stay where they were.
• It does not stand in for a therapist, a doctor or a friend who knows you.
• It does not move to another phone or computer by itself. Print it, download it, or use My data on this device to carry a backup across.

Ways people use a worksheet like this

• Write the thought down while it is fresh, and fill in the rest later when things are calmer.
• Use the same words the thought used, even if they are harsh.
• Stick to one thought. If three come at once, keep three.
• Print the sheet and take it to an appointment, so you do not have to find the words there.
• Print the blank worksheet for a day when a screen is too much.

These are everyday ideas in our own words. They are not advice from a therapist, and they do not suit everyone.