Mind-Body Workbook for PTSD by Stanley Block Read Free Book Online

I’ll never be the same , I’m no good , or I’m stained ,and weaves a story about that thought, embedding the negativity into every cell of your body. You are left seeing yourself as incomplete, damaged, or broken and you have a story to prove it! This state is known as the damaged self .
    The original question, What do I do about my negative thought? now becomes What do I do about my depressor? That’s what this chapter is all about.
    Day One     Date:____________
    The depressor is the doom and gloom of your I-System, using negative self-talk to reinforce the damaged self. Today you’ll begin to recognize your negative self-talk.
1. Throughout the day, notice and log your negative self-talk. Note the nature (such as sharp, cramping, painful, heavy, or tense), location, and intensity of any body tension that comes with it.

2. Do a Depressor map. Around the following oval, scatter your negative self-talk and any thoughts you have when you’re bummed out. (See the sample map on the next page.) Write as much as you can for a couple of minutes. List your body tensions at the bottom of the map.

    Body Tension:
    ______________________________
    ______________________________
    What’s your behavior like when your depressor is active?
    ______________________________
    ______________________________
    ______________________________
    The thoughts on your map are natural thoughts that happen to be negative. The depressor works by grabbing a negative thought and embedding the negativity in your body. The resulting distress you feel starts the vicious cycle as more negative thoughts follow. This creates a heavy burden that affects how you live your life. Seeing how the depressor works breaks this vicious cycle.

Sample Depressor Map

    Body Tension:
    “clenched jaw, tight shoulders, rumbling stomach, painful neck, heavy body”
3. Let’s see how your depressor works. From the map you made in step 2, take the thought that creates a lot of body tension and disturbs you the most (for example, My life is useless or I can’t do anything right ), and write it in the following oval. Now, scatter around the oval any thoughts that come to mind. Use phrases or complete sentences like I can’t keep a job or I was fine before. List your body tensions at the bottom of the map.

Troubling thought from my depressor map

    Body Tension:
    ______________________________
    ______________________________
    The map you just did holds the key to controlling your depressor. All the thoughts on your map are spun into stories (true or not) by your I-System. Just think about the stories that come to mind about your negative thoughts. These are called storylines. It’s very important to recognize and become aware of their power. Storylines are the link between any negative thought that pops into your mind and the mind-body distress you experienced on the last two maps. The I-System’s spinning storyline takes a natural negative thought and embeds the negativity into every cell of your body, thereby making a mind-body connection. Storylines keep the I-System going, taking you away from the present moment and keeping you from living your life at its best. Without the depressor’s storylines, negative thoughts can not cause any distress.
    Frank lost his left leg in Iraq. He has a relatively well-functioning prosthesis. Often when he woke up in the morning, he thought, I’m an amputee , and then wove negative stories about what he couldn’t do, his discomfort, the problem, and so on. By the time he got up to go to the bathroom, his mind and body were already distressed. He blamed his distress on his combat injury and created more storylines about being unable to live his life as he had before the war. Several weeks after starting a mind-body bridging group, he reported, “I sometimes still wake up with the thought I’m an amputee , but now I say to myself, I am having the thought “I’m an amputee,” so what else is new? I then make my way to the