Cognitive Distortions - What Are They and How Do They Impact Your Life?
*Outside of this article, I typically replace “unhelpful” with “distorted” when discussing ways of thinking, as distorted can imply there is something “wrong” with our thought processes. For the purpose of this article, I will be using “unhelpful” when discussing distorted thoughts.
Chances are, if you have been in CBT Therapy, you have heard of cognitive distortions. That is because cognitive distortions were derived from the father of Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy, Aaron Beck. Cognitive distortions are distorted or biased ways of thinking, also known as “thinking errors”. A distortion can negatively influence the way we think about ourselves, our world, and others. When we continue experiencing unhelpful ways of thinking, it becomes our automatic response and thought pattern overtime.
Distortions can come from a variety of factors. Some include:
Your personal views and opinions
How you were raised
Your family’s beliefs
External factors such as life events
Your history and experience
Your core belief or core fear
It can be difficult to detect when you are having an unhelpful thought because of how automatic it is. A helpful way to identify if you are having unhelpful thoughts is if identify the type of emotion you feel after that thought (i.e., “I think my friend is mad at me -> anxiety, fear). Below we are going to explore 12 types of cognitive distortions you may find familiar.
Catastrophizing - Immediately jumping to the worst case scenario without evidence, no matter the likelihood. You may notice this often comes with “what if” questions. (Example: Receiving the dreaded “we need to talk” message -> “What if I did something wrong,” “I’m going to get in trouble,” “I’m going to get in fired.”)
Labeling - Generalizing someone or something based on one characteristic or one instance. (Example: “I failed the exam, therefore I am a failure,” “I skipped the gym yesterday, therefore I am lazy,” “my partner doesn’t help with chores, they’re a lazy person.”)
Black-and-white thinking (all or thinking thinking) - Thinking in absolutes without awareness of “gray” areas - good or bad, right and wrong, etc. (Example: “I either hate my job or I love my job,” “I do everything around here!”, “I am a good parent or a bad parent.”)
Jumping to conclusions - Leaping to a conclusion without having all of the facts. Most likely, this will be based from a concern or a fear. (Example: “My partner said they want to talk, they are going to break up with me,” “I made a mistake at work, I am going to be fired,” “I feel chest pain, I’m going to have a heart attack.”)
Mind-reading: A form of jumping to conclusions. Although mind-reading and fortune telling are very similar, personally I feel mind-reading is more present within relationships (reading someone’s mind) rather than situations. However, they could easily overlap. Mind-reading is assuming what someone is thinking without any evidence. (Example: “They think I’m awkward,” “They probably think I’m overreacting,” “They’re going to say…”)
Personalization: Blaming yourself, making something your fault. Possibly for something that may have been out of your control or out of proportion for the situation. (Example: “My partner is in a bad mood, it must be my fault,” “My child isn’t getting along well with the other kids, I am a bad parent,” “Our team didn’t win because of me.”)
Mental Filtering/Discounting the Positive: Discounting the negatives or positives, ignoring proof that goes against your beliefs. Similar to a “glass half empty, glass half full” mentality. (Example: “They just said that to be nice,” “My child is perfect no matter what,” “I won’t get into college because I don’t have a 4.0 GPA.”)
Minimizing and Magnifying: Involves the exaggeration or diminishment of events, other people, or situations. (Example: an argument with a friend will end the friendship, catastrophizing a mistake, invalidating a partner’s feelings).
Emotional Reasoning: Have you ever heard of the quote, “I feel, therefore it must be true”? We determine the truth to be based on how we feel. (Example: “I’m an awkward person, I know people don’t want to be my friend,” believing your partner is cheating when experiencing jealousy within the relationship, “My boss doesn’t like me, I will never get that promotion.”)
Should Statements: Establishing rigid and binary ‘rules’ regarding how oneself, others, and the world should be. Should statements can often induce guilt over actions taken or not taken, leading to a sense of failure.
Overgeneralization: Taking one instance or a single piece of information, and applying it to all similar situations. (Example: “All pit bulls are aggressive,” “Every politician is corrupt,” “Men don’t want long-term relationships.”)
Fortune telling: A form of jumping to conclusions. Predicting the future without consideration of other, more probable, possibilities, or without any evidence. (Example: “This will end badly for me,” “Everyone is going to judge me,” “I will never get my dream job.”)
You may have noticed many of these overlap, this is not on accident. What these thinking styles all have in common: they are not helpful to us. So if they’re not helping us, why do we think this way? Our mind’s primary job is to keep us safe. Protect us from being uncomfortable, experiencing pain, and preventing our fears from coming true. Our mind does not care about making us happy. That is a hard pill to swallow. That’s why it is up to us. It’s up to us to change the relationship with our mind, and to work together and change the relationship with it. The good news is, awareness of our thoughts is the first step. Now that you can identify these types of thoughts, you can practice tracking your thoughts with my “distortion log” worksheet on my Instagram, or by journaling daily.
