fbpx

Cognitive Distortions: What Are They, and How Can You Cope with Them?

Everyone experiences unreasonable and bad thoughts from time to time. Sometimes these thoughts are shaped by patterns of distortions that are difficult to overcome. What are cognitive distortions, and how can you cope with them?

There are instances when we perceive things to be more negative than they are. Whatever the data or experience tells us, once we put on that negative filter, it might be tough to see things in a different light. This is referred described as a cognitive distortion

Cognitive distortions, often known as ‘unhelpful thinking styles,’ are ways our thoughts might become skewed. As conscious beings, we are constantly interpreting the environment around us, attempting to make sense of what is going on, and our brains sometimes take shortcuts and produce results that are not entirely correct. 

Negative or irrational thinking can impact how we see ourselves, others, and the world in general. Sometimes we go to the worst-case scenario, and other times we blame ourselves for situations that are not our responsibility. Cognitive distortions occur naturally, but until we recognize them, they can have tremendous yet unseen effects on our moods and lives, leading to anxiety and depression symptoms. 

But correcting cognitive distortions is possible; you just need to recognize your negative ideas for what they are. 

Read on to know more!

What are cognitive distortions?

Distorted thinking, also known as cognitive distortion, is an exaggerated pattern of thought that is not based on facts. As a result, you see things more negatively than they really are. In other words, cognitive distortions occur when your mind convinces you of unfavorable beliefs about yourself and your surroundings that are not necessarily true. Our thoughts have a significant impact on how we feel and behave. When you accept negative beliefs as truths, you may see yourself and act in ways that are based on incorrect assumptions. 

Generally, everyone experiences cognitive distortions. It’s a natural component of the human condition. This is especially true when we are feeling sad. However, your mental health may suffer if you have too many negative ideas. Cognitive distortions can cloud your reasonable thinking, causing you to feel bad and make judgments that aren’t in your best interests. The worst part is that they get so established as a way of thinking that they are difficult to identify – you just assume that’s how the world is. 

Types of cognitive distortions

There are over 50 types of cognitive distortions. The following are the most prevalent cognitive distortions or distorted thoughts:

  • Filtering: Mental filtering is emptying and straining all positive aspects of a situation and instead focusing on its negative aspects. Even if a scenario or person has more positive than negative features, you focus solely on the disadvantages.
  • Polarization: Also known as “all-or-nothing thinking,” is a method of thinking about oneself and the world that is “all-or-nothing.” This cognitive distortion leads you to believe in black and white, with no shades of gray. All-or-nothing thinking frequently results in unrealistic expectations for yourself and others, which can impact your relationships and motivation.
  • Overgeneralization: This occurs when you take a single negative incident and convert it into a never-ending cycle of loss and defeat. Words like “always,” “never,” “everything,” and “nothing” appear frequently in your train of thought when you overgeneralize.
  • Jumping to conclusions: When you leap to conclusions, you make a negative interpretation of an event or scenario without any evidence to back it up. You then react to your assumption.
  • Catastrophizing: Jumping to conclusions is related to catastrophizing. In this instance, you always reach the worst-case scenario, no matter how unlikely. This cognitive distortion is frequently accompanied by “what if” queries. “What if he didn’t call because he was involved in a car accident?” “What if she didn’t show up because she didn’t want to spend time with me?”
  • Personalization: Personalization makes you believe you are accountable for occurrences that are, in fact, entirely or partially outside your control. This cognitive distortion frequently leads to you feeling guilty or assigning blame without considering all of the facts involved.
  • Fairness fallacy: This cognitive distortion refers to judging every behavior and scenario on a fair scale. In other words, you believe you know what is and isn’t fair, and it irritates you when others disagree with you. Because you feel the need for everything to be “fair” according to your own limits, and the myth of fairness will force you to clash with some individuals and situations.
  • Labeling and mislabeling: Which is the process of telling oneself, “I am a [label],”. Negative labels include “I am ignorant,” “I am unattractive,” and “I am hopeless.” These labels are skewed because humans are simply too complicated to be summed up with such a basic term.

How can you cope with Cognitive Distortions

Journal these ideas

Writing down how you feel is a powerful and cathartic way to express yourself. It’s also an efficient tool for quickly spotting cognitive distortions that you’re engaging in, which helps you figure out the best and most logical next move. Once you’ve been writing in your diary for a while, you’ll have a complete repository of thoughts that will allow you to track your development through time and identify and change negative thinking patterns that may be holding you back.

Investigate your thoughts

Negative thought habits are rarely founded on facts. Examining the facts involves looking for indicators that contradict your negative ideas. Turn to the evidence if you find that some of your thoughts are about criticizing or dismissing yourself. For example, instead of criticizing yourself, list how you are productive, successful, efficient, loving, or supportive. If you’ve been reflecting on something you said at a meeting that may have been wrong, consider how many times you’ve said something interesting and how much you’ve given to your team. You may even concentrate on how everyone reacted during the meeting. Did they really pay so much attention to your remark?

Avoid the tendency to generalize

Overgeneralization and black-and-white thinking are two cognitive distortions that might cause you to extrapolate one bad experience to everything and everyone. Saying anything incorrectly, for example, does not imply that everything you say is incorrect. You can reframe any situation in your mind if you learn to recognize the difference.

Avoid speculation

We’re pretty sure you can’t read people’s minds. However, in many situations, you may act or think as you do. As a result, it’s a good idea to perform a “reality check” before jumping to conclusions. You can begin by inquiring about the situation with others. Instead of thinking your partner has lost interest in you, you may really ask them if this is the case. When you do this, you’ll likely find information that contradicts your cognitive distortion. In other words, learning about other people’s experiences and viewpoints can help you detect negative thought patterns that aren’t founded on reality.

Consider re-attribution

Regarding cognitive errors like blaming and personalization, you frequently accept more responsibility than is warranted. The re-attribution strategy helps you challenge that cognitive pattern by re-assigning responsibility to external causes that may have contributed to the circumstance. So, instead of blaming yourself entirely, you learn to share the blame with others or the circumstance as a whole. This is not a strategy of deflecting all responsibility away from oneself but rather embracing a healthier ratio of blame appropriate for the scenario at hand.

Be kind to yourself

Speaking kindly to yourself may appear like a simple task, but making a genuine effort each day to build yourself up and offer your heart and mind with internal love and support is an essential habit to cultivate. For example, as you prepare for the exam, tell yourself, “I’m smart, I’ve worked hard, and I feel confident about the material”. This will help you to gradually develop more realistic and helpful thoughts, which help to improve your mood.

Cognitive distortions are patterns of thought that we perceive to be real despite the fact that they are not; recognizing cognitive distortions is the first step toward overcoming them!

Alt-text: What are cognitive distortions?

Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/stressed-woman-sitting-on-window-sill-7278794/

Everyone experiences unreasonable and bad thoughts from time to time. Sometimes these thoughts are shaped by patterns of distortions that are difficult to overcome. What are cognitive distortions, and how can you cope with them?

There are instances when we perceive things to be more negative than they are. Whatever the data or experience tells us, once we put on that negative filter, it might be tough to see things in a different light. This is referred described as a cognitive distortion

Cognitive distortions, often known as ‘unhelpful thinking styles,’ are ways our thoughts might become skewed. As conscious beings, we are constantly interpreting the environment around us, attempting to make sense of what is going on, and our brains sometimes take shortcuts and produce results that are not entirely correct. 

Negative or irrational thinking can impact how we see ourselves, others, and the world in general. Sometimes we go to the worst-case scenario, and other times we blame ourselves for situations that are not our responsibility. Cognitive distortions occur naturally, but until we recognize them, they can have tremendous yet unseen effects on our moods and lives, leading to anxiety and depression symptoms. 

But correcting cognitive distortions is possible; you just need to recognize your negative ideas for what they are. 

Read on to know more!

What are cognitive distortions?

Distorted thinking, also known as cognitive distortion, is an exaggerated pattern of thought that is not based on facts. As a result, you see things more negatively than they really are. In other words, cognitive distortions occur when your mind convinces you of unfavorable beliefs about yourself and your surroundings that are not necessarily true. Our thoughts have a significant impact on how we feel and behave. When you accept negative beliefs as truths, you may see yourself and act in ways that are based on incorrect assumptions. 

Generally, everyone experiences cognitive distortions. It’s a natural component of the human condition. This is especially true when we are feeling sad. However, if you have too many negative ideas, your mental health may suffer. Cognitive distortions can cloud your reasonable thinking, causing you to feel bad and make judgments that aren’t in your best interests. The worst part is that they get so established as a way of thinking that they are difficult to identify – you just assume that’s how the world is. 

Types of cognitive distortions?

There are over 50 types of cognitive distortions. The following are the most prevalent cognitive distortions or distorted thoughts:

  • Filtering: Mental filtering is the process of emptying and straining all positive aspects of a situation and instead focusing on its negative aspects. Even if a scenario or person has more positive than negative features, you focus solely on the disadvantages.
  • Polarization: Also known as “all-or-nothing thinking,” is a method of thinking about oneself and the world that is “all-or-nothing.” This cognitive distortion leads you to believe in black and white, with no shades of gray. All-or-nothing thinking frequently results in unrealistic expectations for yourself and others, which can impact your relationships and motivation.
  • Overgeneralization: This occurs when you take a single negative incident and convert it into a never-ending cycle of loss and defeat. Words like “always,” “never,” “everything,” and “nothing” appear frequently in your train of thought when you overgeneralize.
  • Jumping to conclusions: When you leap to conclusions, you make a negative interpretation of an event or scenario without any evidence to back it up. You then react to your assumption.
  • Catastrophizing: Jumping to conclusions is related to catastrophizing. In this instance, you always reach the worst-case scenario, no matter how unlikely it is. This cognitive distortion is frequently accompanied by “what if” queries. “What if he didn’t call because he was involved in a car accident?” “What if she didn’t show up because she didn’t want to spend time with me?”
  • Personalization: Personalization makes you believe you are accountable for occurrences that are, in fact, entirely or partially outside your control. This cognitive distortion frequently leads to you feeling guilty or assigning blame without considering all of the facts involved.
  • Fairness fallacy: This cognitive distortion refers to judging every behavior and scenario on a fairness scale. In other words, you believe you know what is and isn’t fair, and it irritates you when others disagree with you. Because you feel the need for everything to be “fair” according to your own limits, and the myth of fairness will force you to clash with some individuals and situations.
  • Labeling and mislabeling: Which is the process of telling oneself, “I am a [label],”. Negative labels include “I am ignorant,” “I am unattractive,” and “I am hopeless.” These labels are skewed because humans are simply too complicated to be summed up with such a basic term.

Alt-text: types of Cognitive Distortions

Source: https://www.pexels.com/photo/woman-wearing-black-camisole-3356489/

How can you cope with Cognitive Distortions

Journal these ideas

Writing down how you feel is a powerful and cathartic way to express yourself. It’s also an efficient tool for quickly spotting cognitive distortions that you’re engaging in, which helps you figure out the best and most logical next move. Once you’ve been writing in your diary for a while, you’ll have a complete repository of thoughts that will allow you to track your development through time, allowing you to identify and change negative thinking patterns that may be holding you back.

Investigate your thoughts

Negative thought habits are rarely founded on facts. Examining the facts involves looking for indicators that contradict your negative ideas. Turn to the evidence if you find that some of your thoughts are about criticizing or dismissing yourself. For example, instead of criticizing yourself, make a list of all how you are productive, successful, efficient, loving, or supportive. If you’ve been reflecting on something you said at a meeting that may have been wrong, consider how many times you’ve said something interesting and how much you’ve given to your team. You may even concentrate on how everyone reacted during the meeting. Did they really pay so much attention to your remark?

Avoid the tendency to generalize

Overgeneralization and black-and-white thinking are two cognitive distortions that might cause you to extrapolate one bad experience to everything and everyone. Saying anything incorrectly, for example, does not imply that everything you say is incorrect. You can reframe any situation in your mind if you learn to recognize the difference.

Avoid speculation

We’re pretty sure you can’t read people’s minds. However, in many situations, you may act or think as you do. As a result, it’s a good idea to perform a “reality check” before jumping to conclusions. You can begin by inquiring about the situation with others. Instead of thinking your partner has lost interest in you, you may really ask them if this is the case. When you do this, you’ll likely find information that contradicts your cognitive distortion. In other words, learning about other people’s experiences and viewpoints can help you detect negative your thought patterns that aren’t founded on reality.

Consider re-attribution

Regarding cognitive errors like blaming and personalization, you frequently accept more responsibility than is warranted. The re-attribution strategy helps you challenge that cognitive pattern by re-assigning responsibility to external causes that may have contributed to the circumstance. So, instead of blaming yourself entirely, you learn to share the blame with others or the circumstance as a whole. This is not a strategy of deflecting all responsibility away from oneself but rather of embracing a healthier ratio of blame that is appropriate for the scenario at hand.

Be kind to yourself

Speaking kindly to yourself may appear as a simple task, but making a genuine effort each day to build yourself up and offer your heart and mind with internal love and support is an essential habit to cultivate. For example, as you prepare for the exam, tell yourself, “I’m smart, I’ve worked hard, and I feel confident about the material”. This will help you to gradually develop more realistic and helpful thoughts, which help to improve your mood.

Cognitive distortions are patterns of thought that we perceive to be real despite the fact that they are not; recognizing cognitive distortions is the first step toward overcoming them!

Latest Posts