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RECORD OF AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS ON PAIN
Situation |
Automatic Thoughts |
Physical Response |
Emotional Response |
Cognitive Distortion |
Changed Thought |
what makes the better analgesic agent: opium or alcohol? |
depends on what's available |
hunger—vacant
field, fingers at the nape |
as if being corralled |
knack for the dramatic |
given a hot spot, some chop limbs off to save lives |
18th century doctors used screw compressors: turn to tighten, amputate |
and what for the maple, leaves aflame, falling? |
like seeing the boy kiss someone else |
weary, wearied, weariful |
mental filtering, flailing |
some rebirth bullshit in another's poem |
in Hatteras, they hauled the lighthouse inland |
but saved what? |
like legs, sand bur scratched or unstretched |
lack of pliability |
magnification |
the sea oats will last longer |
the girl slits the belly of a pregnant, beached shark, holds the
pup up |
coat to hang, pulled weed, magic rabbit, thurible |
cramps: biceps and throat |
envy |
disqualifying the positive |
the pocket knife's smooth, cool pearl shell |
eventually they improved the surgical instruments |
the distance from scalpel and scar |
like seeing the incision |
like the distance from the bus stop to the front porch |
fortune telling |
you can have a knife crafted to fit your palm |
Flight attendant announces he'll collect any remaining garbage |
the high school boyfriend? (your sense of humor cannot sustain
this poem) |
too Dramamined to determine |
between relief and deliverance |
disqualifying the negative |
Electronic devices: off. Carry-on items: stored. Seat back and
tray: upright. Right? Right. |
the drowning dream |
"in the unlikely event of a water landing" |
unmoving, unmovable |
like the moment you know you've lost |
emotional reasoning |
it's dream drowning—sink and breathe and swim away |
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RECORD OF AUTOMATIC THOUGHTS BEGINNING WITH A WOODPECKER
Situation |
Automatic Thoughts |
Physical Response |
Emotional Response |
Cognitive Distortion |
Changed Thought |
woodpecker, incessantly, drilling the secret code into the shutters |
am a cliché, am one step shy of poet on Prozac |
cramping—in palm, tongue |
near asepticism |
jumping to conclusions |
what truths did Robert Frost really find in nature? termites? call
exterminator? birds are stupid |
have stolen line from friend |
am thief and bird hater |
slight twinge, slight twining |
desire to grind coffee to fine mist |
labeling |
call it collage; keep calling it friendship; birds are stupid |
phone rings |
I should like people more, more people |
like cooking pasta when you're full |
like the end of a book you hoped would last longer |
should statements |
don't have to answer; am never full |
dirty dishes in both sides of sink |
why this upswept floor, unkempt heart |
like a pencil against an inflamed callous |
like the end of a movie you almost liked |
mental filtering |
divide dishes: big stuff, small stuff; wash big stuff first; looks
like an accomplishment |
dog wants out |
after loss, there's nothing left to write about |
like gum tree seed balls—prick, prickle, rive |
understand woodpecker |
all-or-nothing |
there's desire; there's good-bye |
good-bye is loss |
airports—the eternal good-bye |
in need of Dramamine |
longing—just one more good-bye |
magnification |
no Dramamine, drama, no more mine, mine, mine |
want to leave husband for Frost |
heel, cheat, scrap, shred |
like an wheel, a wheel rut |
bird at empty feeder |
labeling |
Frost is dead, dilemma, and not the only |
have been eternally sad for 23 days, 5 hours, and 47 seconds |
am all definitions of green |
I want |
I want |
disqualifying the positive |
am only 2nd and 5th definitions of green |
definitions are malleable |
good |
like snow globe's snowman |
dissatisfaction |
emotional reasoning |
good: pleasant, tasty, behaved, true, salutary, suitable |
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The chart and some of the cognitive distortions
are borrowed from Managing Pain Before It Manages You, by Margaret
A. Caudill, MD. PhD, a workbook for those learning to live with chronic
pain. I encountered the book while recovering from a micro discectomy
that was less than successful and became obsessed with this chart, that
is simultaneously emotionally beneficial and utterly absurd. We can think
our way to emotional/psychological wellness, but the world is the world. |
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