Читать книгу Cognitive Behavioural Therapy For Dummies - Rob Willson - Страница 35

Low frustration tolerance refers to the error of assuming that when something’s difficult to tolerate, it’s ‘intolerable’. This thinking error means magnifying discomfort and not tolerating temporary discomfort when it’s in your interest to do so for longer-term benefit, as we show in Figure 2-11.

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FIGURE 2-11: Low frustration tolerance.

The following are examples of low frustration tolerance:

 You often procrastinate on college assignments, thinking, ‘It’s just too much hassle. I’ll do it later when I feel more in the mood.’ You tend to wait until the assignment’s nearly due and it becomes too uncomfortable to put off any longer. Unfortunately, waiting until the last moment means that you can rarely put as much time and effort into your coursework as you need to in order to reach your potential.

 You want to overcome your anxiety of travelling away from home by facing your fear directly. And yet, each time you try to travel farther on the train, you become anxious, and think ‘This is so horrible, I can’t stand it’, and quickly return home, which reinforces your fear rather than helping you experience travel as less threatening.

The best way to overcome low frustration tolerance is to foster an alternative attitude of high frustration tolerance. You can achieve this way of thinking by trying the following:

 Pushing yourself to do things that are uncomfortable or unpleasant. For example, you can train yourself to work on assignments even if you aren’t in a good mood, because the end result of finishing work in good time, and to a good standard, outweighs the hassle of doing something you find tedious.

 Giving yourself messages that emphasise your ability to withstand pain. To combat a fear of travel, you can remind yourself that feeling anxious is really unpleasant, but you can stand it. Ask yourself whether, in the past, you’ve ever withstood the feelings you’re saying you presently ‘can’t stand’.

Telling yourself you can’t stand something has two effects. First, it leads you to focus more on the discomfort you’re experiencing. Second, it leads you to underestimate your ability to cope with discomfort. Many things can be difficult to tolerate, but rating them as ‘intolerable’ often makes situations seem more daunting than they really are.