I’ve been discussing Cognitive Distortions over the past month, so I wanted to wrap up and not drag this out too long for fear of overload :).
Mental filtering: The thinking that we do when we filter out certain aspects of life. It is not always bad but when it is distorting your thinking is when you filter out all the positives and only focus on the negatives.
Jumping to conclusions/mind reading/fortune-telling: This type of cognitive distortion involves making assumptions that are often false. We must consider all aspects and all potentials of thoughts and situations.
Personalization: When your inner voice is always speaking negatively about yourself (I am so lazy, etc.). Instead, try saying I can make better choices with my time.
Emotional Reasoning: Focusing on your feelings too much when reacting to your thoughts.
Catastrophizing: This is worst-case scenario thinking. Force yourself to consider the best case also!
Magical thinking: This type of thinking involves rituals or formulas such as having an object that brings you good luck or washing your hands 3 times to bring out better sleep, etc. We must confront our fears and not trust luck, etc.
Control fallacies (external and internal): This includes assuming we are correct without really thinking about the opposite side of the argument.
Disqualifying the positive: This is self-explanatory.
Shoulds and absolutes: Using words like “all, always, every, just, only, never, none, no, not, must, should” often lead to cognitive distortions.
Overgeneralization: When we make hasty assumptions or generalizations from insufficient or false evidence, these are overgeneralizations.
SO, slow down, and write out. your thoughts, identify any cognitive distortions, and do the work to retrain your mind and your thinking! It can be done!
Be blessed and start thinking clearly today!
Dr. Atwell
