Daily Thought Recording (DTR)

Structure and Function of the Written Record

The Daily Thought Record (DTR) is the practical tool par excellence to bring therapy to the patient's daily life.

It consists of a table to be filled out by the patient when experiencing a negative emotional change (anxiety, sadness, anger).

The essential columns include: the Situation (what happened), the Automatic Thought (what went through his mind), the Emotion (what he felt and with what intensity), the Rational Response (the outcome of the Socratic debate) and the Result (how the emotion changed after responding).

The act of writing is critical because it forces the mind to slow down and process information more objectively, transforming abstract, fast-moving thoughts into concrete, manageable data.

Design and Use of Coping Worksheets

Since it is difficult to rationalize in times of acute crisis, response cards or coping cards are used.

These are physical or digital cards where the patient writes down, in a calm moment, an adaptive response to his or her most disturbing recurring thoughts.

For example, if a person who wants to lose weight has the thought "I deserve to eat this because I had a hard day," his or her index card might read, "Overeating will not solve my work stress, it will only make me feel guilty later; there are other ways to reward myself."

The patient should read these tokens several times a day (in transportation, upon awakening) to reinforce the new neural networks and have the response "at hand" when the sabotaging thought appears.

Practical Application for Belief Modification

Consistent use of the RPD and tokens has a cumulative effect. At first, the patient may not fully believe his or her rational response, but repetition and eva luation of the result ("By thinking this, my anxiety dropped from 9 to 4") generate deep learning.

The patient is instructed to rate the credibility of his or her thought before and after writing the response.

If a thought such as "I am incompetent" was believed at 90% and after the exercise drops to 40%, it is considered a therapeutic success that strengthens the patient's self-efficacy to handle future stressful events.

Summary

It is a fundamental chart where the patient writes down situations, emotions and automatic thoughts. The act of writing helps to slow down the mind and process information in a more objective and manageable way.

The coping cards contain adaptive responses written in calm moments. The patient reads them frequently to have an immediate rational response at hand when the sabotaging thought arises in his or her day-to-day life.

Constant use generates cumulative learning that reduces the credibility of negative thoughts. Seeing emotional intensity decrease after exercise strengthens self-efficacy to handle future stressful events.