Hey. What you are saying makes good sense to me. I think that part of the problem is that while SOME distressing emotions are the result of cognitive distortions (etc) not ALL of them are.

Sometimes... Instead of trying to change our emotion (by trying to figure out what implicit cognitive distortions might be producing it)...

What we need is for the feeling to be acknowledged and... Accepted. Its okay to feel sad sometimes. Its okay to grieve. Its okay to feel angry.

Sometimes what I needed was for someone to sit with me while I experienced the emotion and just... Empathise with me and kind of feel it too. Just so I wasn't alone in that.

And that... Would make it less distressing. So I was better able to employ self care strategies like distraction.

Maybe... You just DO feel sad. And maybe... The sadness needs to be acknowledged and accepted rather than challenged and rather than people attempting to undermine it.

My t taught me how. Now I am better at giving myself inward hugs and good vibes. When thoughts occur in my head like 'you are a worthless piece of %#@&#! and you deserve to die' I don't try challenging them - challenge just makes them go stronger in an attempt to counter-challenge. Instead... I just acknowledge that the thought occured in my head - but that doesn't mean I believe it. And... I give myself an inward hug and try and feel warm vibes to myself and maybe reflect on something that I did that I feel proud of or happy about.

Any of this make sense?