The burden of perfectionist expectations is all too familiar to anyone who has struggled to kick a bad habit. Break down just once — have one smoke, one single drink — and at best it’s a “slip.” At worst it’s a relapse, and more often it’s a fall off the wagon: failure. And if you’ve already fallen, well, may as well pour yourself two or three more.

As you recover from alcoholism or other drug abuse, you may find that you have trouble remembering skills that you learned while addicted. These difficulties may be results of state dependent learning;, that is, when sober, you may not be able to recall what you learned under the influence of drugs and alcohol.

Once you can label and dissect an irrational thought, you take away some of its power. The longer these patterns are allowed to continue, however, the more likely they are to become ingrained, lifelong habits.

Low self–esteem is at the root of behaviors which make your life feel unproductive or unmanageable.

Thinking can alter in various ways when panic or phobias occur. You may experience unhelpful thinking styles, such as jumping to the worst conclusion.

The disturbing thoughts or images are called obsessions, and the rituals performed to try to prevent or get rid of them are called compulsions.

If you find yourself tormented by unwanted, disturbing thoughts or compelled to perform rigidly set actions to reduce your distress, you may be one of the millions of Americans who suffer from obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD).

Self-affirmations are healing, positive self-scripts you give to yourself to counter your negative self-scripts. Self-affirmations can help free yourself from the over-dependence on other's opinions, attitudes, or feelings about you.

Irrational beliefs are messages about life we send to ourselves that keep us from growing emotionally; scripts we have in our head about how we believe life "should'' be for us and for others.

The word "cognitive" or "cognition" means "to know" or "to think". Therefore, cognitive therapy is viewed as a "psychological treatment of thoughts." Simply, cognitive therapy operates under the assumption that thoughts, beliefs, attitudes and perceptual biases influence what emotions will be experienced and also the intensity of those emotions. Cognitive Therapy has been helpful in treating panic, anger control problems and substance abuse.