Stress management strategies do not include cognitive restructuring

“"Stress management strategies do not include cognitive restructuring" is a typical cognitive misunderstanding. Cognitive restructuring is one of the core stress management tools verified by more than 300 clinical studies under the cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) system. The essence of this misunderstanding is that the differences in the applicable boundaries and scene adaptability of different schools are amplified, and even overgeneralized.

You must have encountered this scenario: There are only 15 minutes left before the project deadline, and half a page of data is missing from the report in your hand. Your heart is beating so fast that it’s in your throat, and all you can think about is “I can’t finish it and I will be notified for criticism.” At this time, if someone came up to you and said, "Please stop and do some cognitive restructuring and adjust your irrational beliefs," you would probably throw the keyboard directly at his face. This is also the reason why many bloggers who create instant stress-relief content repeatedly emphasize that "cognitive restructuring is useless" - in emergency situations, you simply don't have the time and energy to sit down and fill out automatic thought recording sheets. Tools such as box breathing and the 5-4-3-2-1 grounding method that can be effective in a few seconds are just needed. Over time, some people equate "not used in emergency situations" with "not a stress management strategy." I also made this mistake when I first started working in enterprise EAP. I handed a thinking record sheet to an employee who was squatting in the stairwell crying after being scolded by the boss, and was directly scolded back. Later I figured out: there is no right or wrong tool, there is only the difference between using it in the right place and using it in the wrong place.

There is also a very interesting phenomenon. Practitioners from different schools have very different opinions on this issue. I had dinner with a friend who does somatosensory therapy last month, and she firmly believed that cognitive restructuring was "just scratching the surface." She also told me about her case: a client who had been PUAed in the workplace for three years. Logically, she had long figured out that "the boss was deliberately suppressing me because of my poor ability." However, when I got downstairs at the company, I still had stomachaches that made me break into a cold sweat. I did cognitive restructuring eight times to no avail. Finally, it took more than three months of physical release training to slowly get better. The stress management program she gives her clients never includes the content of cognitive restructuring. In her practical system, "stress exists in the body and has nothing to do with what is going on in the mind." Similar views are also common among practitioners of the behaviorist school. They are more willing to use behavioral activation and exposure therapy to solve stress problems. They feel that adjusting cognition is too "virtual" and it is more effective to move first. The differences in practice between these different schools are widely spread and can easily be taken out of context to mean that "stress management does not involve cognitive restructuring at all."

Speaking of this, I have to mention the biggest misunderstanding that many people have about cognitive restructuring: equating it with "Ah Q spirit", "self-comfort" or even "self-PUA". I once came into contact with a salesperson who had not made any sales for three months in a row. He was so stressed that half of his hair turned gray. He said that he had also tried to "try to open up a little bit more", but finally came to the conclusion that "I am just not suitable for sales, so I might as well quit my job and go back to my hometown." This is not cognitive restructuring at all, but downward rationalization. The real cognitive reconstruction is that we reviewed his three-month visit records together and calculated that his customer conversion rate is actually 2 percentage points higher than the team average. However, his customers are all difficult KA customers, and the number of visits is 30% less than others. The problem is not a lack of ability at all, but a problem of customer allocation and visit rhythm. Later, he adjusted his weekly visit plan and placed two orders in the second month, which relieved most of his stress. To put it bluntly, cognitive restructuring is to use objective evidence to debunk the catastrophic thinking in your mind. It is not to close your eyes and pour yourself chicken soup of "I am awesome". Many people use the wrong method and it is ineffective, so they naturally feel that it is not a serious stress management tool.

Of course, there are special circumstances, such as patients in the acute stage of PTSD or people with severe cognitive impairment, who are really not suitable for cognitive restructuring. At this time, forcing the other party to "adjust their thoughts" will cause secondary trauma. Therefore, cognitive restructuring is clearly excluded from the intervention plan for this group of people, which is one of the reasons why many people have the misunderstanding of "not included".

To put it bluntly, stress management is a toolbox with no unified standards. You don’t need a hammer to tighten screws. You can’t say that a hammer is not a tool, right? Cognitive restructuring is like that little-used Allen wrench. You may not be able to remember it when disassembling express delivery and tightening screws. But if you really encounter an adaptation problem, it is better than anything else. If you have to argue whether it counts as a stress management strategy, it’s better to try different methods and find the one that suits you.