DEMANDINGNESS: Things must be the way I want them, or think they “should” be.

AWFULIZING: Things which are unwanted or distressing are incredibly horrible.

SELF DOWNING: This is when you are critical, disparaging, and hateful of your whole self; it is global negative self-rating.

LOW FRUSTRATION TOLERANCE: This is the belief that it is unbearable if you are thwarted; or having an extremely negative emotional reaction when things go wrong.

These are specific examples:

• black-and-white, “either-or” thinking
• inappropriate generalization
• something “must” or “must not” (demanding)
• awfulizing
• distortion of probability
• intolerance of discomfort, particularly low frustration tolerance
• thinking you know, when in fact you just have a good guess
• rating people (others or yourself)
• dysfunctional beliefs which are neither objective nor provable
• beliefs which are incorrect or not consistent with objective reality

awfulize (or) catastrophize:
to consider something extremely awful or dire; to think that something is, or will be, intolerably bad, a “10” on a scale from 0 to 10

elegant solution:
correction of an underlying irrational belief which is affecting many other beliefs, a root problem belief, so that when that belief is corrected many assumptions and fears drop away

emotional responsibility:
the concept that the individual is responsible for his emotions, to the extent that they are caused by, or could be modified by, his deliberate thinking and analyzing; striving for rational thinking

LFT:
low frustration tolerance…beliefs about the unbearable-ness of being stressed, beliefs that things shouldn’t be difficult and one shouldn’t have to suffer or even be inconvenienced…according to Ellis this is very common, and its opposite, high frustration tolerance, should be cultivated in order to reduce unnecessary distress

musterbating:
demanding; thinking it’s absolutely necessary that things be a certain way; “should” thinking

rational:
logical, productive, empirically valid, matter-of-fact, relativistic rather than black-and-white or dogmatic

self-downing:
criticizing oneself, usually including global black-and-white thinking and always including self-rating, e.g., because I made a particular mistake, I’m a bad person

short-term hedonism:
putting a high value on short term pleasure or immediate gratification…often goes with LFT…long-term hedonism is preferred: taking into account the consequences down the road, and behaving in such a way as to maximize pleasure in the long run

USA:
unconditional self-acceptance…a deep conviction that one is entitled to exist, though imperfect and fallible…tolerance for one’s imperfection