The decision to seek psychological therapy has important implications for the progress and long-term management of a disorder. How you view your psychological problems is going to influence how they develop. Most people act like amateur scientists in attempts to understand the causes of their behavior. In making this attempt, they generally tend to put the causes of their behavior into one of three categories: Global or Specific; Internal or External; and Permanent or Temporary. People with issues like chronic anxiety, depression, poor social interactions, low self-esteem, lack of purpose, and anger management difficulties, tend to view the causes of their psychological problems in the following ways:
Global, not Specific. Troubled people say, “I am dysfunctional in most respects. My weaknesses pervade everything I do.” “I’m not good at anything.”
Internal, not External. You might say, “It is my faults and limitations that cause my psychological difficulties. Yes, there are some troublesome people in my life, but the bottom line is that I bring my misery upon myself.”
Permanent, not Temporary. “My dysfunctions are here to stay.” This attribution is especially damaging, and clients who hold this belief strongly are the most difficult to treat. If your therapy is to have a chance of succeeding, you must believe that by working hard on problem areas you can change and improve your condition. If you do not have that basic belief, you are not likely to do well in therapy. Of course, part of the job of the therapist is to help clients believe in themselves.
Psychotherapy involves helping clients move away from extreme thinking involving one or more of these three premises. Clients must see their problems as specific to identifiable situations, external (not due to some inherent deficiency), and temporary in nature.These orientations can motivate them to stay in therapy and attack their problems more effectively.
Psychology and Stress 