Thoughts and Feelings Are Not Facts: How to Reality-Test Your Brain

Two lessons that take people a long time to learn are that thoughts are not facts and feelings are not facts. Reality testing can help us see this, but this is a skill many don’t have. These are hard lessons because our thoughts and feelings try to convince us differently. A lot in the outer world tries to convince us differently, too. It takes insight and wisdom to truly learn how to put our thoughts and feelings into perspective. While this can be trouble for anyone, I believe you can’t make real progress in handling a mental illness like bipolar disorder until you truly internalize that thoughts and feelings are not facts. You can also protect yourself and those around you when you properly reality-test your thoughts…