Link Negative Moods and Marijuana Use
The counselor explores the relationship between marijuana smoking and the experience of negative moods and the role of automatic thoughts:
Shirley (S): I miss smoking pot when I’m overwhelmed by bad feelings. I felt better after getting high.
C: Smoking helped you cope with your negative mood.
S: Yeah, but I would get depressed again when I came down from the high.
C: What works for you in the short term causes other problems later.
S: Yeah.
C: Today we’ve reviewed ways to cope with negative thoughts. You said getting up and moving around helps. Researchers have found that often the negative feelings don’t just happen. That is, they don’t come from nowhere. In fact, negative feelings may be related to the way we think about things or the way we interpret situations. Thinking Errors That Dampen One’s Mood lists types of thoughts that increase the chances of feeling depressed. We call them cognitive distortions because they don’t reflect what’s going on but are based on an interpretation of events. Let’s look at automatic thought patterns you have that lead to depression.
Terminate Treatment
If this is the final treatment session with this client, the counselor discusses termination issues