Author: Sadhana Singh, Counselling Psychologist
Editor: EmptyCare team
Updated on: 19 December 2022
Often, we believe what our brain tells us. After all, what else can you trust if you can't trust your own brain? This is generally a positive thing because our brains are designed to warn us of danger, attract us to potential partners, and solve the challenges we face daily. However, sometimes it’s confusing and pushes thoughts which are not necessarily true that make you question the authenticity of these thoughts. Your brain is not intentionally deceiving you; rather, over time, it may have formed some patterns of negative thoughts, which are called cognitive distortions.
Cognitive distortions are negative or irrational patterns of thinking that we unknowingly reinforce over time. These negative thought patterns can play a role in diminishing your motivation, lowering your self-esteem, and contributing to problems like anxiety, depression, and substance use.
All cognitive distortions include the following characteristics:
Admitting that you might get subjected to distorted thinking might be frightening. Although most people do not experience these types of cognitive distortions on a regular basis, it appears that no one is totally immune to them. If you're human, you've probably experienced a few of the many cognitive distortions at some point. Much like with many other skills and abilities in life, but with practise, you may develop your capacity to identify and prevent these distortions.
I'll walk you through the 8 cognitive distortions with examples that occur the most frequently so you can identify your own and better understand how negative thoughts patterns work.
1. Polarized Thinking
When you have an "All-or-Nothing" or "Black and White" thinking, it is said to have polarised thinking. In polarised thinking individuals see the world in "either/or" categories, they must be flawless, or they are utter failures. No middle ground that accommodates the complexity of realistic thoughts exists. Black and white thinking limits one to thinking in extremes.
Recognizing that success and progress are not all-or-nothing ideas is one strategy to overcome this cognitive distortion. Self-defeating thoughts can be replaced with more positive ones to help you feel better about your development and identify your talents.
Example - Your roommate was a saint until she ate your sandwich. Now, you completely despise her. Or, you got a B on your last test, so you have failed at being a good student despite getting only As before that.
2. Mental Filtering
Mental filtering means sapping and squeezing out all of situation's positives and focusing on its negatives. You only pay attention to the negative features of a situation or a person, even though there are more positive aspects than negative ones.
Mental filtering consists of two types of distortions. Both isolate one little experience and concentrate solely on it, filtering out everything else, as opposed to taking one small incident and incorrectly generalising it.
Example - A student who receives a performance review at school gets a good review but focuses on one negative comment their teacher made about them during the review.
Example - An employee gets a good review on a yearly review, but the employee overlooks it and tries to explain their good review as simply luck or fluke instead of a result of their hard work.
Journaling is a way to tackle mental filtering. Try to consciously change your attention from the unpleasant to more neutral or positive components of an event.
3. Overgeneralization
When a person concentrates on a single incident and draws a judgement based on this one piece of unfavourable evidence, this is known as overgeneralization thinking.
Since they derived this conclusion from a single instance, they wrongly believe that all future instances of a similar nature will also end in failure or a bad experience.
Example - After going on a job interview and finding out we didn't get the job, we conclude we'll never get a job and feel hopeless about our career, leading to sadness and depression.
4. Jumping to Conclusions
The false assumption that we know what another person is thinking is one form of this "Jumping to Conclusions" distortion. Although it is certainly feasible to have a sense of what other people are thinking, this distortion pertains to the pessimistic conclusions that we draw too quickly.
Example - Your partner comes home looking serious. Instead of asking how they are, you immediately assume they’re mad at you. Consequently, you keep your distance. In reality, your partner had a bad day at work.
Example - You have a date with a wonderful person, but you predict that the date will go bad. You start making assumptions about how the date will go before it even has occurred. The predictions are not based on any actual evidence.
5. Catastrophizing or Magnification
Catastrophizing thoughts occur when the magnitude is exaggerated or diminished. This way of thinking causes fears to grow out of control and turn into the worst-case scenario. When there are unknowns that a person cannot control, magnifying or catastrophizing can happen.
Example - What if my alarm doesn’t go off? What if then I’m late for the important meeting? What if I get fired after I’ve worked so hard for this job?
6. Minimization
Opposite of magnification, this cognitive distortion consists of minimizing positive experiences. The magnitude of importance for positive qualities is diminished when this distortion occurs.
Example - An athlete wins an award but does not acknowledge their accomplishment. They minimize the importance of the award because they might feel others already have the same award.
7. Personalization
Personalization is the belief that you are entirely to blame for something even though you had little or nothing to do with the outcome. In fact, the situation may not be connected to you in any way at all. It can also involve blaming someone else for something for which they have no responsibility.
Example -” They must be talking about me,” after having walked into a room and noticing that a group of people suddenly stopped talking. Perhaps they were discussing something private, or it was just one of those awkward moments when the room goes quiet.
8. Should Statements
Statements about what a person "should" do, "must" do, or even "shouldn't" do constitute this distortion. These statements are imposed on themselves or other people.
These regulations put a lot of pressure on people and impose expectations that are unlikely to be delivered. Disappointment can lead to emotions like guilt, frustration, and even rage or resentment.
Example - Statements like, “I should be exercising more," create expectations that are not likely to be met. The pressure created from the “should” statements makes it difficult to meet those expectations.
Speak with your therapist if you believe that cognitive distortions may be impacting your perception of reality and are worried about how these beliefs may be adversely affecting your life. You can learn to think more accurately with the use of therapies like cognitive behavioural therapy. If you are looking for a therapist you can explore from a list of qualified therapists at EmptyCare.
