ABCDE Activity

Our emotions always take priority over any other kind of information. The brain always gives priority to the emotions. When the emotional brain is triggered, it will block all paths to reason and if the strength of feeling is strong enough, it will employ the fight or flight response.

The ABCDE Activity is helpful when the mind is dominated by automatic negative thoughts and feelings. It provides the perfect platform to explore, understand and choose at that moment to create more positive and favourable experiences. Below are two examples of two very different problems and how the ABCDE Activity might work for both.

EMOTIONAL ACTIVATION

Julies Story

Whilst out shopping Julie sees her ex across the street. Their relationship came to an end the previous year after he had an affair. She recalls the humiliation and shame she felt, made worse by her friends knowing and not disclosing it. She instantly shakes off the unbearable memory, telling herself she 'got over that!' She waves to her ex, smiles and goes about her day. Later that evening, and despite Julie's attempt to suppress her emotion, she found herself feeling increasingly revengeful and her thoughts spiralling out of control.

In Julies story, a memory with painful emotions linked to it was triggered and there were no other memories of her resolving the problem for the mind to recall, had there been the emotional brain would have had no reason to activate. When faced with painful events that arouse strong emotions, they often need reframing in a rational and real way, or they will continue to resurface when something happens to trigger them. 

Johns Story

Caught in a traffic jam on the way to work, Matthew turns on some music and sits waiting patiently for the traffic to move. Luke on the other hand breaks open a packet of breakfast biscuits, whilst John experiences a flood of anxiety and sounds his horn in despair. So why do people have different reactions to the same problem?

Fundamentally, it is what we think or believe about something that bothers us, not the something itself. This means that we can reframe our thoughts and beliefs about that thing and turn it into an entirely different emotional effect, one that we can feel comfortable with.

ABCDE ACTIVITY

How the ABCDE activity might work for Julie and John.

A: THE ACTIVATING EVENT

The activating (triggering) event is the thing that happens to or around you, for example the activating event:

For Julie - was seeing her ex on the bus.

For John - it was being stuck in a traffic jam.

Name one of the things that activates your emotion. 

B: YOUR BELIEF

This is the belief you have about the situation, event, person, or thing.

Julies Belief

Julie believed she was betrayed by everyone, including her friends, injuring her dignity and self-respect.

Johns Belief

For John, the belief was that being late for work would impact on his day overall and possibly lead to job loss.

What underlying belief do you have about the thing that activates your emotion?

C: THE CONSEQUENCE

This is the consequence of the belief.

Julie

The consequence of Julie’s belief was a feeling of humiliation and shame, spiralling thoughts and eventually a desire for revenge against everyone involved.

John

The consequence of John’s belief led him to become impatient, anxious and feeling powerless over all aspects of his job and life.

What is the consequence of your belief; how do you feel and what happens?

D: DISPUTING BELIEFS

This is where we can dispute and reframe the beliefs underlying our distress. This part of the activity will bring those beliefs into the spotlight where we can clarify, or disqualify them, and provides the perfect opportunity to give ourselves a greater selection of choices.

Julies disputing beliefs

Julie might consider that they were all victims of her partners bad behaviour, including her friends. She might dispute the belief that she should feel ashamed and embarrassed, after all she had no control over the event. She might consider whether her self-esteem is low. Julie might also consider forgiveness; people are only human after all and they do make mistakes.

John’s disputing beliefs

John might consider how likely it is for him to lose his job for being late due to traffic problems, after all it was completely out of his control. He could have considered spending an extra hour at work to catch up, or to go in an hour earlier the next day. He may question whether his expectations of the morning traffic are realistic or whether the job is worth all that stress.

Note down 1 to 3 beliefs that dispute your current thoughts.

E: TRANSFORMING EFFECTS

What new effects do the disputing beliefs have?

Julies Transformation

Julie is more able to cope with the difficult emotion of humiliation, which in the light of reason has been understood and reframed into a new truth, in particular a new understanding of how her own low self-esteem can inspire beliefs of self-blame and failure, about things she has no control over. Julie spent time working on her self-esteem and found she had many positives and strengths of which she was previously unaware. Julie met up with her friends for a chat, and they all fully appreciated the lesson learnt - there are no failures in life, there is only feedback.

Johns Transformation

John created a new and better route and routine for the journey to work. John changed his job, to one that is less demanding. John changed his expectation of life overall, to one that is more fitting and comfortable for him.

Often, we need to observe, examine, and dispute our dominating thoughts and feelings to arrive at a reasonable conclusion.. one that we can feel comfortable with.