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Credible Alternatives for (EA-flavoured) Depressive Beliefs
One idea in cognitive behavioural therapy is that it's easier to let go of beliefs that are doing damage to you if you have credible alternative beliefs. I found a list of some such alternatives in my notes from when I was doing CBT a few years ago, and was inspired by the recent 80,000 hours podcast on mental health to share them. Coming up with alternative beliefs was a really useful exercise for me and I would recommend it to others!
Damaging Belief: It’s a shame that I’ve had such a fortunate life. Someone else would do better with what I’ve got.
Credible Alternative: I can’t give my good luck to anyone else. The best I can do is be grateful for it.
Damaging Belief: I’m a drain on the world by default. Only by doing as much good as possible can I justify existing.
Credible Alternative: All lives are valuable. My life is valuable. I work to do good because I care, not because I’m obligated.
Damaging Belief: I’m a frivolous (and therefore bad) person because I make time for enjoying things.
Credible Alternative: I can trust myself to try my best. I’m better able to do that if I leave time for joy.
Damaging Belief: Noticing what can be done and failing to do it is worse than remaining unaware.
Credible Alternative: There isn’t enough of me to work on everything that I’d like to, and that’s okay.
Damaging Belief: Saying I can’t do something because of limited willpower or effort is just an excuse.
Credible Alternative: Acknowledging my limitations is not giving up. It lets me wisely direct the time and resources I have.
Note: I am not necessarily saying that the beliefs I labelled as "damaging" above would be damaging for everyone. They were certainly bad for my mental health, though!
While making several of review crossposts for the Decade Review I found myself unhappy about the possibility that someone might think I had authored one of the posts I was cross-linking. Here are the things I ended up doing:
Make each post a link post (this one seems... non-optional).
In the title of the post, add the author / blog / organization's name before the post title, separated by an en-dash.
Why before the title? This ensures that the credit appears even if the title is long and gets cut off.
Why an en-dash? Some of the posts I was linking already included colons in the title. "Evidence Action – We’re Shutting Down No Lean Season, Our Seasonal Migration Program: Here’s Why" seemed easier to parse than "Evidence Action: We’re Shutting Down No Lean Season, Our Seasonal Migration Program: Here’s Why".
Add an italicized header (ETA: I think a footer works better) to the crosspost indicating that it's a crosspost and, where appropriate, adding a link to the author's EA Forum account.
Example: Because of the ongoing Decade Review I am re-posting some classic posts under the review crosspost tag. With their permission, this post may eventually appear under the original author's account. This post is from December 19, 2014.
Credible Alternatives for (EA-flavoured) Depressive Beliefs
One idea in cognitive behavioural therapy is that it's easier to let go of beliefs that are doing damage to you if you have credible alternative beliefs. I found a list of some such alternatives in my notes from when I was doing CBT a few years ago, and was inspired by the recent 80,000 hours podcast on mental health to share them. Coming up with alternative beliefs was a really useful exercise for me and I would recommend it to others!
Damaging Belief: It’s a shame that I’ve had such a fortunate life. Someone else would do better with what I’ve got.
Credible Alternative: I can’t give my good luck to anyone else. The best I can do is be grateful for it.
Damaging Belief: I’m a drain on the world by default. Only by doing as much good as possible can I justify existing.
Credible Alternative: All lives are valuable. My life is valuable. I work to do good because I care, not because I’m obligated.
Damaging Belief: I’m a frivolous (and therefore bad) person because I make time for enjoying things.
Credible Alternative: I can trust myself to try my best. I’m better able to do that if I leave time for joy.
Damaging Belief: Noticing what can be done and failing to do it is worse than remaining unaware.
Credible Alternative: There isn’t enough of me to work on everything that I’d like to, and that’s okay.
Damaging Belief: Saying I can’t do something because of limited willpower or effort is just an excuse.
Credible Alternative: Acknowledging my limitations is not giving up. It lets me wisely direct the time and resources I have.
Note: I am not necessarily saying that the beliefs I labelled as "damaging" above would be damaging for everyone. They were certainly bad for my mental health, though!
While making several of review crossposts for the Decade Review I found myself unhappy about the possibility that someone might think I had authored one of the posts I was cross-linking. Here are the things I ended up doing:
header(ETA: I think a footer works better) to the crosspost indicating that it's a crosspost and, where appropriate, adding a link to the author's EA Forum account.