butnobodycame123

Hi Sara, I have two questions about CBT, specifically the "reframing technique".

A popular example is "the guy that cuts you off on the road" but I'm going to go with a more relevant example. My roommate blasts her television every evening when it's supposed to be quiet hours. What I'm supposed to do is reframe my thoughts to: "Golly, my roommate must not have good hearing and MUST blast her television and music in order to hear it. That is terrible, I'm so thankful that I can listen to my media without blasting it, but I will need to wear headphones to filter out hers."

Some people are just inconsiderate jerks and there's no further explanation needed. I get that reframing is a technique to avoid thought distortion and get closure on a bad or anxious experience, but I feel that reframing assumes that there's a (often benign) reason for everything and doesn't solve the problem.

My questions are: If I make up a story about why someone is acting a certain way, aren't I just making excuses for their bad behavior (which doesn't seem healthy to me)? And, what does reframing actually do? Is it not meant to problem-solve?

Edited for grammar and clarity.

Is it considered cultural appropriation (and all of the negative connotations that has) if an atheist celebrates Christmas?