During the last couple weeks, I spilled my glass quite a bit. On several occasions, 
     my friends even asked me what happened to my plans to fill it (thanks for looking out
     for me guys!). Unfortunately, since I’d yet to get to the part in my lessons where I learn
     how to turn around my pessimistic thoughts, I was struggling a bit and falling into old
     (or essentially always-there) habits. It was time to progress on with my sessions with  
     Dr. Seligman.

     In today’s lesson, I learned about the “D’s” of pessimism (see here for the ABC’s). This stands for “distraction” and “disputation”—two techniques that can be used to cease pessimistic thoughts.

      First, let’s start with distraction. Dr. Seligman begins by describing a very warm piece of apple pie with vanilla ice cream melting on top. Great, Dr. S, way to contribute to my other addictions! Then, he tells me to stop thinking about it. Obviously, I can’t. All I can think about is how much I’m starting to dislike the things he makes me think about and wondering where’s the nearest bakery and if they’re open at 1 a.m. and then I remember that there is this new “munchies” store that opened in my neighborhood that delivers ice cream and other goodies and I’m thinking maybe they have pie too. Now, where is that number?

     Wait, what were we doing again Dr. Seligman? Oh yes, pessimism. Hey, look, the distraction model worked! I’m feeling pretty positive about that apple pie when I hit play to continue.

     Yeah, turns out that isn’t quite how the technique works. Dr. Seligman tells me to think about the pie again (drool), and then to stand up and slam my palm against the wall and yell, “STOP!” This, apparently, is one way to use the “distraction” method. Hmm, by replacing my pessimism with anger? Ok, you’re the doctor… Another way is to ring a bell when I have pessimistic thoughts. If I did that every time I had a bad thought—meetings, the subway, essentially every time I step outside—I’d be getting checked into a mental hospital in no time. His final suggestion is to snap a rubber band “hard” on my wrist when I have a pessimistic thought. So let me see here… I’m a food addict with anger issues who self-harms and is in a mental institution? But, by golly, I sure am feeling optimistic about it all!

     For the second step of the “distraction” method, Dr. Seligman suggests you direct your thoughts elsewhere and schedule a time later in the day to reexamine them and the situation. He also suggests writing down your feelings as they occur and revisiting this later too. This will allow the thoughts to reduce in strength, he says, and no longer have any purpose. (Here is where I start thinking I might be hopeless because I actually do this already, and the negative thoughts don’t reduce in strength. I keep a journal where I often write pessimistic things. Later, I sometimes reread them and it just gets me angry all over again!)

     Luckily, Dr. Seligman says there’s another deeper, more lasting remedy for pessimistic thoughts. Let’s hope this one is more effective for me. This method is known as “disputation.” Here, you make an argument against your thoughts—go on the attack. You stand back from your beliefs and recognize they’re just that, beliefs. Then you look for evidence to the contrary of your beliefs and find alternate explanations for your actions. For example, if you did poorly on a math test, you might tell yourself that you’re a terrible student who will never understand math. To dispute these thoughts, you may find evidence that you’ve done well on past math tests and an alternative explanation could be that your teacher grades poorly or that you didn’t have time to study.

     Dr. Seligman points out that often it will be hard to generate these alternative beliefs because in many cases, you won’t be fully convinced they’re true. I pessimistically think it’ll be all cases for me. My job, he says, is to undo this “destructive habit” by becoming skilled at creating alternative explanations.

     Sometimes, though, there will be times when the negative beliefs about yourself are true or you can’t prove them wrong. To draw on an example from my own life: I live in New York City, one of the most expensive cities in the U.S., and work as a writer. On my salary, I will never be able to afford to buy a house or an apartment.

     To dispute thoughts such as these, Dr. Seligman says we have to “decatastrophize.” While the first part of my statement was factually correct, I’m to ask myself if it’s implications really mean I’ll never be able to afford a house or an apartment? (Prolly.) Here, I’m to search for evidence again. Ok, let me think about friends I have who make my approximate salary or less. Some of them own homes in similarly pricey areas. Oh, wait, yes, there is hope—marry rich! Of course, then I’ll have to start “disputing” all my pessimistic thoughts on men and dating, but I’ll need a minimum of twenty more lessons for that. For now, let’s just say I get the gist of this method.

     And there you have the basic summation behind applying the D’s to pessimism. (I truncated it a bit so not to bore you to tears. I mean, [disputation] I bet you all found this as riveting as me!) Next, I’m to record five adverse events again, this time making an ABCDE diary. The D is for the “disputation” and the E for “energization,” or the results from successfully disputing my pessimistic explanations. Luckily for my learning purposes, I have all sorts of A’s to vent from last week. Stay tuned!