Would This Strategy be Useful for you?

Heather · 08-28-2007, 10:15 AM

There's a thread in the maintainers group I wanted to link to. It's about using a kind of behavior therapy for weight loss and I find it very interesting....

REBT techniques/coping with urges

Do you all think these strategies (from the first post) would be useful for you??

Jen415 · 08-28-2007, 10:42 AM

Wow, I really think so! I'm always asking myself WHYYYY do I do the things I do--maybe this will help me sort them out!

BattleAx · 08-28-2007, 11:25 AM

I had this type of help in therapy, and it helped...yet I wasn't completely ready to make lasting changes at the time. Eventually it became an important component of my approach to weight loss this time....

I am a personal financial consultant, and I use this technique with the clients coming to me for financial counseling, especially those who need to make changes in their spending. I have seen many clients make enormous shifts in their financial lives as a result of applying this practice.

One of the main reasons I am here now is that I started asking myself why I was not taking my own advice. I was helping my clients shift their thinking to make changes enabling them to get out of their own way and stop hurting themselves, and I wasn't applying the same to the area of my life that needed work.

Luminous · 08-28-2007, 11:25 AM

The flavor of REBT I'm familiar with (it's coming back to me now

) reframes Ellis' concepts (although they are still Ellis' concepts through and through) with the specific goal of treating addictive behavior. The addictive voices are labeled as arising from the "reptile brain," (the most evolutionarily ancient part of the brain) or, in Freudian terms, the id. These are the voices that want, without any awareness of other factors. More food, more drugs, more of that rush, more of what made it feel good.

Countering these constant animalistic desires is the frontal lobe—our rationality, or, in Freudian terms, the ego. The conscious, rational part of us is normally "the boss" of the reptile brain. Say you've hiked to the peak of a steep, rocky hill. Peering down the other side of the hill, you see a nearly-straight descent littered with pebbles. "Wouldn't it be fun to slide down that?" the reptile brain (aka "the Beast") says, and the rational brain says, "Um, I think I'll pass. It looks like I could easily break my neck."

As it applies to eating, the reptile brain is the voice in your head that says, "Have another helping! A few chips never hurt anyone. Mm, listen to the ice cream in the freezer calling us. Aww, cutting veggies up is so much work; just get something from the vending machine instead. Chocolate CHOCOLATE CHOCOLAAAAATE."

I think the most useful part about REBT for weight loss is learning to recognize the voice, and learning to externalize it, to realize that it's not entirely "you," but that it's just a very ancient PART of you that only knows how to want. Rather than placate it by feeding its mindless desires, you realize that "you," aka the conscious, evolved you, have a duty to serve as caretaker and disciplinarian to the dumb, unevolved voice of the reptilian brain.

P.S. Isn't cognitive-behavioral therapy the single therapy that's ever been found to actually "work?"

phantastica · 08-28-2007, 11:58 AM

Cool stuff here! I've only gotten glimpses of REBT, but found it to be pretty spot-on in the contexts I've seen it. I guess I will spend some time thinking about it with respect to my own weight issues.

Thanks for posting!

Heather · 08-28-2007, 03:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Luminous

P.S. Isn't cognitive-behavioral therapy the single therapy that's ever been found to actually "work?"

That's SUCH a great question!! It's one am going to try to do a better job of talking about with my intro psych class this coming term.

I don't know the full answer, but I do think it depends on what you are trying to cure. I *think* cognitive therapies have been shown to be effective for some problems. Pure behavioral therapy (e.g., systematic desensitization) can be helpful for a number of anxiety disorders...

But the research on what therapies work and for whom is very lacking. And yet, people flock to untested therapy all the time. If I can find a good source of info for this question, I'll post it.

NotTheCheat · 08-28-2007, 06:27 PM

Heather - Thanks for posting that link. It looks really interesting, although it does seem like this is how my personal work has developed over time on a more intuitive basis. I have ordered the book recommended from the library and hopefully will get it soon.

Robin41 · 08-28-2007, 07:42 PM

I tried really hard to read this, I really did. But somewhere around the point that B started trying to kick C's ***, I started to nod off.

Ok, I'm making fun a little bit, but it really seemed to me that sometimes people really just think too much. I think it's pretty common with the overweight to overthink everything that has to do with food. I just wonder if a method that seems to emphasize so much thought over every small decision is really that wise. On the upside, at least in my house, if I put that much effort into deciding whether to eat a pastry, by the time I'd finished thinking, somebody else would have eaten it.

MarinePrincess · 08-29-2007, 03:10 AM

I swear that article spoke to something in my soul. Burger King is between work and home and I have to talk myself past it every day. If I gave into the urge everytime it occurred, I'd be eating BK 2 meals a day, 3 days a week. Not included in that is when I have to do errands and I end up on the main USMC base where Popeyes is. I'm always so proud when I make it back home without breaking and so upset when I cave.

I never realized I do this already, but now that I'm aware I think I'll be even more successful in saying NO to the baddies.