These are 10 common cognitive distortions that can contribute to negative emotions. They also fuel catastrophic thinking patterns that are particularly disabling. Read these and see if you can identify ones that are familiar to you.
Our brain is a master at processing information and it tends to categorize data to make quick decisions, relieving us from the constant effort of figuring everything out. However, at times these mental shortcuts can become flawed, leading to inaccurate assumptions and judgment. These flawed mental shortcuts are referred to as 'cognitive biases' or 'cognitive errors'.
- All-or-Nothing Thinking: You see things in black-or-white categories. If a situation falls short of perfect, you see it as a total failure.
- Overgeneralization: You see a single negative event, such as a romantic rejection or a career reversal, as a never-ending pattern of defeat by using words such as "always" or "never" when you think about it.
- Mental Filter: You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively, so that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors a beaker of water.
- Discounting the Positive: You reject positive experiences by insisting they "don't count." Discounting the positive takes the joy out of life and makes you feel inadequate and unrewarded.
- Jumping to Conclusions: You interpret things negatively when there are no facts to support your conclusion.
- Mind Reading: Without checking it out, you arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting negatively to you.
- Fortune-telling: You predict that things will turn out badly. Before a test you may tell yourself, "I'm really going to blow it. What if I flunk?"
- Magnification: You exaggerate the importance of your problems and shortcomings, or you minimize the importance of your desirable qualities. This is also called the "binocular trick."
- Emotional Reasoning: You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: "I feel terrified about going on airplanes. It must be very dangerous to fly."
- "Should statements": You tell yourself that things should be the way you hoped or expected them to be. "Musts," "oughts" and "have tos" are similar offenders. Should statements directed against yourself lead to guilt and frustration; those directed against others or the world lead to anger and frustration.
- Labelling: Labelling is an extreme form of all-or-nothing thinking. Instead of saying "I made a mistake," you attach a negative label to yourself: "I'm a loser." Labelling is quite irrational because you are not the same as what you do.
- Personalization and blame: Personalization occurs when you hold yourself personally responsible for an event that isn't entirely under your control. Some people do the opposite and blame other people or their circumstances for their problems, overlooking ways they might be contributing.
Source: Adapted from Patterns of Cognitive Distortions, David Burns.