I'm very pleased with how self-help efforts and therapy have uncovered my negative core beliefs/schemas, where they come from and which self-defeating behaviors stem from them. I am able to recognize much better now when they are active, and I am able to challenge them.

The one major problem I still have is the self-defeating behaviors seem to have a mind of their own - I can understand all this on a thinking level, but I still struggle on a feeling/doing level. One very negative social experience on a stressful day, for example, and I can feel myself slouching over and acting the part of a mortified, angsty teenager within minutes. This learned response sends some kind of feedback to my thinking brain and I start to re-experience exaggerated negative thoughts. I can then challenge them fairly well, but the "whole body" feeling of defeat and anxiety still persists - then I "feel depressed" again.

How do you overcome this kind of behavioral response and create the ones you want? It's really annoying how persistent it is.