Sometimes it may seem like the cosmos is conspiring against you to ensure your failure or it may feel like you can never amount to anything, you can never be happy or that everything bad happens to you. Often, such experiences are the result of erroneous thought patterns that cause us to view reality in inaccurate and usually negative ways.
Cognitive distortions are thought patterns and beliefs that cause individuals to perceive reality inaccurately. In other words, they’re habitual errors in thinking. These exaggerated or irrational thought patterns are usually biased & colour our perception of ourselves and that of the world around us in a negative manner.
However, they are subtle and hence not so easy to detect because we become used to thinking in these patterns and keep reinforcing them unconsciously. It is always beneficial to understand these, below are a list of various cognitive distortions
E.g. Something is either fantastic or awful, you believe you are either perfect or a total failure.
This kind of distortion is unrealistic and often unhelpful because most of the time reality exists somewhere between the two extremes. Reaching a conclusion about one event and then incorrectly applying that conclusion across the board, to all things.
E.g. You have a negative experience in one relationship and develop a belief that you just aren’t good at relationships at all.
This distortion stops us from analysing and understanding differences in situations and finding solutions because we start seeing patterns where there are none. This is basically like dreading the unknown or fearing the worst in any situation
E.g. Expected check doesn’t arrive in the mail. You may begin to fear it will never arrive, and that as a consequence it won’t be possible to pay rent and the whole family will be evicted.
This distortion escalates the issues we face creating extreme stress and anxiety from ordinary issues, keeping the person on edge constantly. People tend to usually focus on negative and exclude all the positive.
E.g You may remember and dwell on a single fight with a spouse, viewing the relationship as hopelessly lost, while ignoring the years of positive comments and experiences.
This distortion colours our view on reality making it darkened or distorted. It can lead to pessimism about everything in our life, including ourselves. It leads to a feeling of hopelessness and causes anxiety and depression taking things personally or assigning blame to yourself without any connection or causality even for things beyond your control.
E.g. You blame yourself for the draught, or poor internet connectivity or your mother falling unwell OR believe that if people are whispering it must be about you
This distortion makes us hold ourselves responsible for things beyond our control. We may feel like we are intentionally excluded or targeted. This feeling is a source of constant anxiety and is linked to depression. Rejecting the positive experiences by attributing them to some external factor is the main trait of this distortion.
E.g. Upon getting a positive review at work, you refuse to believe its because of your competence, skill or performance, rather attribute it to luck, chance manages desire to be politically correct or unwillingness to discourage you
This distortion is particularly problematic because it facilitates the continuation of negative thought patterns even in the face of strong evidence to the contrary. Individuals tend to have a negative global judgement.
E.g. A student who labels herself as “an utter fool” Instead of describing an error in the context of a specific situation, we may attach an unhealthy universal label to self or others.
Labelling can cause us to berate ourselves and misunderstand or underestimate others. Mislabeling involves describing an event with language that is highly coloured and emotionally loaded. For example, instead of saying someone drops her children off at daycare every day, a person who is mislabeling might say that “She abandons her children to strangers.”
E.g. If I just work hard, I will get the promotion and raise that I want and deserve.
Sometimes no matter how hard we work or how much we sacrifice, we will not achieve what we hope to achieve. Hence this distortion can result in disappointment, frustration, anger, and even depression when the awaited reward does not materialise.
Identifying which distortions you use the most, and which may be impacting your mood the most, is the key to breaking negative thinking habits and beliefs. It might be difficult to spot them at first since they frequently appear to be rational, correct thoughts.
Some approaches to coping with them include:
It takes work to overcome cognitive distortions and negative thinking, but it is achievable. You may meet with a therapist and undertake some reframing exercises yourself.
