1 All or nothing thinking or black and white thinking (I’m not perfect so I have failed)
2 Mental filter (only see failures)
3 Jumping to conclusions (mind reading or fortune telling)
4 Emotional reasoning (believing something because it feels true)
5 Labeling (I’m a loser/they’re an idiot)
6 Over generalizing (seeing a pattern based on a single event)
7 Disqualifying the positive (that good thing doesn’t count)
8 Magnification & minimizing (making a mountain out of a molehill or not taking seriously)
9 Shoulds/Musts (creating unrealistic expectations)
10 Personalization (taking or placing blame inappropriately)
My question about these is who doesn’t think like this? Everyone I know gets caught up with these so-called distortions at least from time to time. I’m not sure how to stop and identify the distortions and retrain my brain to a more helpful way of thinking. Maybe the new therapist plans on working on that with me. It’s going to get interesting with me being back in therapy because I’m going to drag all of you into it with me, lol.
Which is your go to distortion? Mine is definitely 8 Magnification or catastrophizing. I swear I spend half my days fretting over how everyone is going to get into a horrible car accident if they leave their house. That’s why I’m so anxious and barely want to leave my house without ativan.
I’ve been guilty of all of them from time to time, but the one I have the most trouble with is minimizing/magnification. I worry about dumb stuff and make a big deal or of nothing, but at the same time I could have something seriously wrong with me and I’ll say it’s fine and no big deal. I’m pretty random with what I think is a big deal and what’s not.
I’ll lose sleep over seemingly small things, but when I need help or I’m trying to voice an opinion, I play it down and make things sound less serious than they are.
I’m also pretty good at playing the “shoulds/musts” game.
I should do this, I must do that, etc. It usually ends up with me spiralling towards self-hate and self-blame because I can’t live up to the expectations I have for myself.
yeah you are right. Most of us think this way but there is a way to fix it.
Every time you have a reaction to a situation, you need to take a pause, reflect on your reaction. Why did you react that way and analyze the situation. Once you start controlling your reaction, things will get much easier.
For Scz it is tougher because sometimes we can not control our thoughts and delusions. I have the magnification, grandiose combined together got me in a lot of trouble.
Basically the trick to a happy life is to learn how to be cold-blooded with not much reaction.
I’m guilty of all of these actually (except 7 I don’t do that a lot) my worst and most go to is probably 9 the shoulds/musts. Cause my standards are way to high.
but funny enough my therapist and I were talking about these today I’m supposed to mark down what makes my mood worse in the time between now and my next visit.