Basic beliefs; Starting from childhood, people; develop some ideas about themselves, other people, and the world. The most basic and deepest beliefs are formed as a result of first experiences with the world and other people. Fundamental beliefs are accepted as general immutable truths, they are black/white, generalized and unquestionable. Therefore, these beliefs are rigidly recorded in memory and consciousness.
When basic beliefs are activated by an experienced event, the individual sees himself and the world in that scenario as a perception. Over time, that is, through selective remembering, he begins to remember the negative memories he experienced in the past. In this process, the person's attention selectively begins to confirm the basic belief, while information that does not support this belief is ignored and not included in the information processing process. To put it more simply, a person will trivialize and ignore information and ideas that contradict him. In this way, he continues to maintain his basic belief.
How Do Basic Beliefs Emerge?
Basic beliefs are generally associated with stressful events (divorce, death, job anxiety, job loss, separation, failure, exam anxiety , stress-anxiety about the future, etc.) may not appear until you encounter it. For example; Let's think of someone who has a basic belief such as "I am unlovable." Such a person constantly struggles with thoughts such as "I am worthless, I am not attractive, I will be abandoned sooner or later, I am not someone to be wanted." But the basic beliefs are still not active because they try various ways to make them not active. When we think of such a marriage, the man/woman constantly acts to please her spouse and thus believes that her spouse will love her. But if his wife leaves him or gets into a fight and leaves the house, this belief becomes active immediately and leaves him defenseless against depression and anxiety.
We said that basic beliefs come from childhood. For example; There is something your child wants very much (Lego, notebook-pencil, robot...) and after you interact with him like "this is not for you, it is not possible, you can't do it anyway...", he creates a basic belief in himself and for similar things in the future, he says "I already do it" "I can't do it, I am inadequate, I will fail..." and develops the basic belief that I am a failure. In the following periods, age The basic belief that is waiting to be activated in a negative event (failure in the exam, difficulty in reading, mathematics, etc.) is ready to take over it. As I said above, it paves the way for many psychological disorders and diseases.
For its treatment;
This is actually one of the main subjects of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Existing, accepted basic beliefs (I am inadequate, I am a failure, I am perfect, the world is a very bad place...) need to be replaced with better ones. This may sometimes take a long time and sometimes a short time, so it will depend entirely on the course of the therapy. For example; A different thought-belief should be developed for someone who believes "I am inadequate". This means “I am inadequate in some subjects, but I am sufficient in others. The idea of "this is normal" should be introduced. Thus, he will live a better, more positive and quality life.
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