You are experiencing increased depression and anxiety. You made the right decision to review your triggers and make changes. What if you’re not aware of a trigger? Cognitive dissonance deserves a long hard look.
You may have experienced a feeling of darkness, emptiness or tension, but you couldn’t pinpoint the cause.
Cognitive dissonance was one of the causes I listed in my post “Am I Self-Sabotaging?” published two weeks ago. We need to discuss it because it can cause so much suffering. What is this destructive force exactly?
What is cognitive dissonance (HTML0)?
Let’s start with some definitions to make sure everyone is on the same page.
- Cognitive: Having to do with cognition and the process by which we acquire knowledge and understanding via thought, experience and our senses. It produces perceptions, intuitions, beliefs, emotions, and behaviors.
- Dissonance is the tension that results from the combination of disharmonious elements.
When we hold two or three contradictory beliefs, values or ideas, we feel a sense of mental discomfort.
Jessica’s dilemma
Jessica discovered that her husband, Henry, was having an affair. He said that it wasn’t his first affair and wouldn’t promise to end it. Jessica’s values make her believe that Henry’s behavior was deplorable and that a divorce or separation is justified. She believes that vows must be kept. Jessica is anxious and depressed because of the contradiction in values and beliefs. In Jessica’s situation, a stressor that is identifiable is the cause of her CD. Remember that an unknown stressor may also be to blame.