Our behavior is shaped by our experience. Our experience is a continuous series of events that we give meaning to through our perception. Our perception is based on our beliefs which, for the most part, are handed down to us through our family, friends and cultural environment. Our parents or primary caregivers are the biggest source of our beliefs and also a major source of our mental injuries. I postulate that mental injuries occur whenever we are made to feel worth-less than we truly are as people and therefore not lovable. This is important because we will adjust our behavior in all sorts of ways in order to gain the feeling and safety of being lovable.
This distortion of personality can manifest itself in many forms of what is described as mental illness and neurosis. But again, I italicize mental illness because, in absence of some organic brain disorder inherited at birth, many disorders are learned and therefore can be unlearned.
Tags: behavior, CBT, Depression, learning, mental illness