Automatic Thoughts: The Difficulty for Depressed Patients

Automatic Thoughts – Reflection Paper
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June 1, 2022
Addressing the root causes of depression and other psychological illnesses poses various challenges. One of the common challenges that clinicians face is educating patients to recognize and address the various stimuli leading to their depressive symptoms. Accordingly, this article will focus on one of the tools used to address psychological problems under Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). Thus, in the following section, I would like to provide some reflection regarding its usage in a clinician's daily practice.
The Difficulty for Depressed Patients
As stated earlier, CBT can be very beneficial for depressed patients for it seeks to address the root cause of the problem. Particularly, CBT can help patients by trying to recreate stimuli and change how our minds react to them, thereby reducing negative responses of our brains. In the previous tasks, one of the main tools used was an Automatic Thought Record (ATR), wherein the patient would be asked to reflect, record, and write every negative thought that crossed his mind CITATION Sha211 \l 1033 (Shaikh, 2021). This allows both the patient and the clinician to know which kinds of thought addressed the problem.
However, one of the main problems with using the ATR is distinguishing what a negative thought is. In one article study done by Barcaccia et al. (2019), the author noted that people with depressive symptoms tend to' normalize' their negative thought patterns, thereby making it difficult to distinguish which are harmful and not. Since the primary goal of an ATR is for the patient to exert a proactive effort in recognizing, recording, and addressing these symptoms, then the difficulty of identifying them in the first place is one of the challenges of using ATR.
Another possible difficulty of using an ATR is the sheer effort and energy that the patient should devote to it. Notably, an ATR would require the patient to monitor and determine the negative emotions that he constantly has. This task would be significantly demanding for busy and preoccupied patients with other thoughts since they have to introspect their mental states.
Finally, the determination of negative thought could be subjective, depending on various factors for a patient. Based on my experience, what some people believe is a negative thought might be interesting for others. For example, one of my friends, born and raised in Mexico, thinks that stress is a sign of success and hard work, whereas most Americans believe that stress must be avoided as much as possible.
Culture and Ethnicity
Culture is another factor that could affect how individuals perceive negative thoughts. In one study done by...