If Your Reaction Isn’t Disturbed, Then Why Is It Disturbed-Coded?

[DISCLAIMER]

When providing professional care for mental, emotional, and behavioral health (collectively “mental health”), I predominately use Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT). For those who remain unfamiliar with this psychotherapeutic modality, allow me to discuss one of its tools.

REBT uses the ABC model to illustrate that when an undesirable Action occurs and you Believe an unhelpful narrative about the event, it’s your unfavorable assumption, not the occurrence itself, that causes an unpleasant Consequence. This is known as distress or disturbance.

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines distress as “the negative stress response, often involving negative affect and physiological reactivity: a type of stress that results from being overwhelmed by demands, losses, or perceived threats.” This is a regular function of life.

Alternatively, to be disturbed regards experiencing or exhibiting emotional disturbance (an interruption of a state of peace, quiet, or calm), especially departing or deviating from a normal condition: marked by impairment. This is an irregular function of life.

Concerning mental health, a reaction is merely a response to a stimulus. Regarding REBT, a reaction is the unpleasant Consequences of one’s unhelpful Beliefs about an undesirable Action. From this point of view, the stimulus that causes a reaction is one’s personal narrative.

Noteworthy, with virtually any undesirable Action that occurs, it’s your unfavorable Beliefs which cause unpleasant distress or disturbance (Consequence). Given this framing of self-distress and self-disturbance, it’s worth noting that one REBT source states (page 71):

REBT conceptualizes [distress] as healthy even though it is intense. Other approaches to therapy have as their goal the reduction of the intensity of negative emotions. They take this position because they do not keenly differentiate between healthy negative emotions (distress) and unhealthy negative emotions (disturbance).

Now, REBT keenly distinguishes between healthy distress and unhealthy disturbance. Healthy distress stems from your rational beliefs about a negative activating event [Action], whilst disturbance stems from your irrational beliefs about the same event.

Complete elimination of distress is highly unlikely in an impermanent and uncertain world wherein people conceptually suffer, struggle, and battle with, or merely experience hardship. Still, individuals often make matters worse for themselves by disturbing about such instances.

In particular, there are four predominate irrational beliefs which people often use to distress or disturb themselves: global evaluations, low frustration tolerance, awfulizing, and demandingness. When contemplating these unproductive scripts, think of the acronym GLAD.

Addressing how people upset themselves with unhelpful attitudes, the ABC model incorporates Disputation of unproductive philosophies of life in order to explore Effective new beliefs. Whereas rigid beliefs cause self-disturbance, flexible beliefs result in an un-disturbed condition.

When providing professional care for mental health, some people with whom I’ve worked have deviously concluded that the ABC model is merely a matter of semantics (aspects of language that have to do with meaning). This is an inaccurate conclusion.

For context, the APA defines semantic as “of or pertaining to meaning, particularly that of words and other symbols.” As an example, some clients have unhelpfully learned to merely swap the word “disturbed” for “distressed.” “I’m not disturbed,” client X may say, “I’m just distressed.”

Stated differently, client X may state, “I’m not angry [i.e., disturbance], I’m just frustrated [i.e., distress].” It’s one matter to Dispute unhelpful Beliefs and then use an Effective new belief that results in a desired Consequence, such as distress—which, again, is a regular function of life.

However, simply swapping one semantic term for another, such as referring to disturbance as distress, is another matter altogether. The former process is productive, though the latter is unproductive. Actually, the latter is merely a coded form of disturbance, as one source states:

Coded is a slang term used online to describe people or fictional characters when they resemble or show traits that are not associated with their literal selves. Though originally being used in discussions relating to animated characters exhibiting Black traits while not depicted as Black, the term began to see usage primarily whenever something reminds a person of a concept, such as a K-Pop idol being labeled “Golden Retriever Coded.”

Coded was originally born out of the conversation about things being race coded, which started on Tumblr during discussions about Steven Universe and the gem characters who are meant to be asexual and nonracial since they come from space.

When working with clients who neglect proper use of the ABC model, though who code their self-disturbed reactions as relating to self-distress, I sometimes think, “If your reaction isn’t disturbed, then why is it disturbed-coded? You aren’t fooling me, let alone yourself!”

For those people who are willing to push your asses until desired change occurs, I applaud your effort. As for those individuals who are merely using disturbed-coded semantics, I encourage you to stop attempting to fool yourself and others. Do the work which is necessary for change!

If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life—helping you to sharpen your critical thinking skills, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.

As a psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues ranging from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.

At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!

Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW

Photo credit, Designed by Magnific, fair use

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