Cognitive Distortions

Sometimes, when we are feeling depressed or anxious about some of the challenges that are happening in our lives, we begin to engage in some negative self-talk and irrational thinking. These cognitive distortions can feed our depression and anxiety. If we can become more aware of them, we can stop ourselves from spiraling. Here are some examples below:

All-or-nothing Thinking. Seeing things in ‘black-or-white’ categories. If something isn’t perfect, you see it as all negative.

Overgeneralization. Taking a single negative event and thinking things will never be different for you. You use words such as “always” or “never” when you think about it.

Mental Filter: Taking a single negative detail about an event and not being able to see any positive things about it anymore.

Discounting the positive. Ignoring positive things by saying that they “don’t count.” For example, if you do a great job, you may tell yourself that it wasn’t good enough or that anyone could have done it as well as you.

Jumping to conclusions. Thinking you know how things are or will be even when there are no facts to support your ideas. Such as: • Mind Reading – Thinking someone else believes negative things about you when you do not really know the truth. • Fortune telling – Thinking that things will turn out badly no matter what. You may tell yourself, “I’ll never get better” even if you do not know if it is true.

Magnification. Overestimating the importance of your problems and what isn’t working and not noticing your good qualities.

Emotional Reasoning. You think that your feelings are reality. For example, “I feel angry, so that means I’m being treated poorly.”

“Should” statements: Telling yourself that things must be the way you hoped or thought they would be. Should statements can lead to feelings of guilt and shame if you make them about you. Should statements can lead to feelings of anger if you make them about others.

Labeling. This is like all or nothing thinking when it is directed at yourself. Instead of saying “I made a mistake” you attach a label to yourself such as “I’m a loser.”

Personalization and Blame. Blaming yourself for an event that isn’t under your control. Blaming can lead to feelings of guilt, shame, and anger.

Adaptive Thinking Strategies

Adaptive Thinking Strategies are those strategies that we use to offset negative mood states and behavior that come from our cognitive distortions.

Cost and benefit analysis List all of the good things and all of the bad things about believing the thought and see if it is worth it.

Double-standard What would you say to a friend who expressed this same thought?

Define terms When I call myself lazy, what does that mean?

Shades of grey How valid is the bad thought? Is it all or none? How about on a scale from 0-10?

Experiment Try the behavior in a safe setting and see if the negative thought holds true.

Survey Ask other people if they think that the negative thought holds true.

Re-attribution Think about factors that were out of your control related to the problem you are having a bad thought about. Focus on solving the problem instead of feeling guilty.

Check the facts – both for and against the negative thought.

Straightforward approach Replace the thought with a more positive one.

Check your values Ask yourself why it would be upsetting if your negative thought were true

Be specific Stick with the facts and avoid judgments.

Acceptance approach Instead of fighting against your own self-judgments, find the truth in them and accept them.