Worrying core cognitions | Underlying cognitions | |
---|---|---|
Person-specific cognitions | Context-specific cognitions | |
I have a serious disease | - I have alarming symptoms/abnormal test results which indicate serious disease. | - This is a common disease according to the media/in my family/among my friends and acquaintances. |
- The symptoms I have are not normal. | - The media/my friends say that my symptoms are indicative of a serious disease. | |
- Now that I am getting older the chance of having a serious disease is increasing. | - The symptoms I have must be abnormal as I know of no people in my social environment and with a similar background to mine that have such symptoms. | |
- My symptoms have not disappeared after the treatment so something must be wrong. | ||
My health problem will have adverse physical effects | - I have a health problem that will lead to serious illness causing disability/additional conditions/death. | - These adverse effects happen all the time according to the media/in my family/among people I know. |
- My symptoms are getting worse. | ||
- I do not know how the symptoms can be treated since I do not know what causes them. | ||
My treatment will have adverse effects | - The treatment I received was incorrect, so my health problem will persist. | - In my social environment I have seen many cases of incorrect treatment of this problem with bad outcomes. |
- If I take medication, I will have to continue to take it indefinitely/there will be side effects/I will have difficulty sticking to my drug regimen. | - In my social environment I have often seen adverse effects of medication. | |
My health problem will negatively impact my life | - Having health problems does not fit with how I see myself and my future. | - My social environment is not supportive when I have problems and concerns/does not allow me to deal with the problem in my own way. |
- I have so many health problems at the same time/My health problems are getting worse/my treatment is no longer effective. | ||
- My health problems will make me dependent on others/limit my daily functioning. |