131: Ask David — How Can I Develop Greater Joy and Happiness? Does "Neuroticism" Exist?

Debbie asks: Can you use TEAM-CBT to help people with medical disorders, such as Parkinsonism or Cancer?

Here is the promised link to Stirling Moorey's book on Cognitive Therapy for cancer patients.

Here is the link the first episode of live therapy with Marilyn, a woman who was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer a couple days before her session with David and Dr. Matthew May. You may also want to listen to podcasts 50 to 52 and 59, which also feature David and Matt working with Marilyn. Marilyn described these inspiring podcasts as mind-blowing!

Mark asks: How can I help a depressed family member or friend who is passive and doesn't want to do anything?

Paul asks: How can I get over death anxiety?

Sune asks: If you're super-shy, does this mean you have "Avoidant Personality Disorder?" What's the difference between garden variety shyness and a personality disorder?

Sly asks: "Do you believe in the big five personality traits model? And will your therapy tools change these big five traits? I got a score of 67 on neuroticism, which means I am more prone to anger, depression, anxiety, and vulnerability, and tend to think about things in a pessimistic way. If I do the exercises in your books, and develop a more realistic outlook on myself and others, does it follow that my "personality traits" will get more or less changed?"

According to Wikipedia, the "Big Five" are O = Openness to experience, C = Conscientiousness, E = Extraversion, A = Agreeableness, and N = Neuroticism, often represented by the acronym, OCEAN.

Here's an important point I forgot to make on the podcast. According to Wikipedia, here's the definition of "Neuroticism:" People with high neuroticism indexes are at risk for the development and onset of common mental disorders. . . such as mood disorders, anxiety disorders, and substance use disorder, symptoms of which had traditionally been called neuroses."

Can you see that this is a tautology? In other words, they ask you if you tend to have these kinds of symptoms, then they tell you this is "due to" some "trait" you have called "neuroticism." But they are defining "neuroticism" as people who tend to have more of these kinds of symptoms! It's circular reasoning.

I hope you can "see" this! The reason I mention this is they make it sound like they discovered some "trait" you have which causes you to have depression, or anxiety, and so forth. But they haven't! It's just a word game. In fact, scientists don't yet know the causes of any of these problems, and "traits" do not actually "exist."

Haike asks: What if you've battled your negative thoughts and self-defeating beliefs and still don't feel happy? An absence of depression and anxiety does not necessarily mean more joy in life. How can you help people find out where they want to go in life, who they want to be, and what it is that brings them happiness?"