CBT records
Thought record for slowing down an anxious moment
Five columns for one anxious moment, ending with what you did next and what that cost or gained you, because that is usually where the problem is kept going.
A4, free, no sign-up. The PDF is tagged for screen readers.
How this version differs from the usual one
Thought records go back to Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy in the late 1970s, and the
common versions end with a more balanced thought. This one ends with what you did next, such
as checking, asking, avoiding or worrying the problem through, and what that cost or gained
you, because those actions bring quick relief and keep the problem going over weeks. It is
for adults and older teenagers with generalised or social anxiety, and it is useful for
collecting examples before deciding what to change.
One row, filled in
Example row | Situation | What went through my mind | Feeling | What I did next | What that cost or gained me |
|---|
| Sunday, 9pm. Manager sent “can we have a quick chat tomorrow?” | I have got something badly wrong and she is building up to letting me go | Anxious 80 | Reread every email from last week, then lay awake planning what to say | Felt prepared for an hour. Slept about four hours. The chat was about holiday cover |
Write the thought as it went through your mind rather than tidying it up, and fill the row
in as close to the moment as you can, even if that means a few words on your phone copied
across later.
Common problems
A common problem is using the sheet to argue with the thought. For worry this can
become another way of worrying, and for OCD it usually becomes a form of reassurance, which
is why the sheet sends people working on OCD to the exposure planner. Record the ordinary
evenings too, when you checked twice and felt a little better, because they show the
pattern more clearly than one bad night.
Most CBT trials test the whole treatment rather than its parts, so I cannot say how much of
the benefit comes from records like this, though they do give us specific examples that
memory rarely supplies.