Inside Mental Health cover image

Inside Mental Health

Your Thoughts Are Lying to You: How to Take Back Control

Mar 6, 2025
Dr. David Burns, Adjunct Clinical Professor Emeritus at Stanford, shares his expertise in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and the creation of the Feeling Great app. He criticizes the medicalization of normal emotions like shyness, arguing it mislabels common experiences as mental disorders. The discussion covers powerful CBT techniques to combat negative thoughts, the importance of tracking emotions for therapy, and how his app empowers users to manage their feelings. Dr. Burns aims to promote drug-free mental health care through innovative and accessible tools.
26:59

Podcast summary created with Snipd AI

Quick takeaways

  • Dr. David Burns emphasizes the importance of reframing common emotions, like shyness, which are incorrectly labeled as mental disorders.
  • The use of technology, such as the Feeling Great app, enhances accountability and effectiveness in tracking emotions for therapy.

Deep dives

The Misclassification of Common Emotions

Many emotions that people experience, such as shyness or anxiety in social situations, are often misclassified as mental disorders like social anxiety disorder. This tendency to label everyday feelings as disorders can create a sense of urgency for individuals to seek medication rather than addressing their feelings directly. This approach frustrates some experts who believe that not every negative emotion needs clinical treatment; instead, it should be recognized as part of the human experience. The over-medicalization of common emotional struggles can detract from understanding and properly managing them.

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