Cognitive Distortions

 

When I was in school, I hated giving presentations they were just the worst type of assignment in my opinion. I stumble over my words forget what I wanted to say and they just always felt like they went really poorly but then I'd get pretty good grades and I didn't ever understand how that was happening how would I feel like I did so poorly but then I'd get good grades well. Eventually I learned this is caused by something called cognitive distortions.

 A cognitive distortion is a type of “irrational thought” where you see things as a bit more negative than they really are now. Cognitive distortions are completely normal everyone has them it's just part of being human but when they're too frequent or too intense they can contribute to problems like depression and anxiety. Today I want to tell you about five different types of cognitive distortions the first cognitive distortion is called emotional reasoning this is when you feel something so intensely that you start to think it must be true. For example, think of someone who has a fear of flying they know the facts that flying is safer than driving but when they take that first step onto a plane that fear takes over and they start to think I know this plane is going to crash I know it's gonna crash, of course the feeling doesn't have any bearing on the facts but if you feel it strongly enough it'll start to seem true.

The second cognitive distortion is called disqualifying the positive, this is when you look at a situation with both good and bad aspects, they sort of push that good stuff aside and you just focus on the bad stuff so imagine you get a performance review. A good example is imagine you go on a first date everything is going well you're getting along you have a lot in common and then you say something really stupid you just put your foot in your mouth and you wish you could unsee it well, when you get home that night that's all you can focus on a stupid thing that you said and you sort of forget that you're getting along great and having fun,  that's disqualifying the positive when you only focus on a small negative aspect of some situation.

The third cognitive distortion is called mind-reading, this is when you make assumptions about other people's thoughts or their intentions or behaviors without really having enough evidence. So, imagine you give a friend a call they don't answer and you start thinking oh I bet they picked up the phone saw what was me put it back down or I bet they're hanging out with someone else they like more or maybe they just don't like me and that's mind-reading when you make assumptions about why someone does something or what they're thinking or feeling without really knowing.

The fourth cognitive distortion is called all-or-nothing thinking, this is when you see things and extremes nothing in between there they're black or they're white they're good or they're bad on a more personal level, this might mean I'm beautiful I'm hideous I'm brilliant or I'm a I've got a great job or I've got a terrible job so for example think of someone who seems to have a pretty good life they've got a  good job close friends hobbies they like they're healthy but the romantic relationship is sort of on the rocks now most people might look at this life and think like oh that's great they've got a good thing going but they look at their own life and they think my life's a mess I'm such a loser all because of that one thing that's all or nothing thinking when you reduce something to its extremes just seeing the black or the white without seeing that grey in the middle.

The final cognitive distortion is called catastrophizing, this is when you only consider the worst possible explanations for something rather than the more likely explanations. For example, imagine you're waiting for a family member to get home from work they're fifteen minutes late and you start thinking they must have been in a car accident why else would they be late when in reality just stuck at work for 15 minutes you're stuck in traffic and that's catastrophizing you jump to the most drastic explanations without considering what's more likely now that I look back at my own experience giving presentations I can see how cognitive distortions played a role you know my presentations they weren't perfect I'd stumble over my words and forget a few things but it wasn't a big deal a 20 minute presentation it might have been two or three minutes that were a little choppy now.

The good thing about cognitive distortions is once you learn to spot them you can start to challenge them and by doing this you can change how you think and you can change how you feel and in the long run this will improve your mental health.

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