Regardless of what happens in our life, we always have the power to choose our attitude. And believe it or not, our brains are trained to develop thinking patterns. However, sometimes these patterns can be distorted or exaggerated, making things seem more negative than they actually are.

A distorted thought or cognitive distortion, is an exaggerated pattern of thought that is not based on facts. It is your mind convincing you to believe negative things about yourself and the world around you that are not necessarily true. 

All cognitive distortions are:

• Tendencies or patterns of thinking

• That are false or inaccurate

• And have potential to cause psychological damage

They are common and sometimes hard to recognize. Many can occur as automatic thoughts, turning into habits that the thinker doesn’t even realize he/she has the power to change.

Your therapist in Sugar Land gives 12 Common Cognitive Distortions:

1. Black and white thinking. Someone with this thinking pattern sees things in terms of either/or. Something is either good or bad, all or nothing. This thinking ignores the middle or sometimes a more reasonable ground.

2. Personalization. In this type of thinking a person takes everything personally. They blame him/herself for external circumstances out of their control.

3. Catastrophizing. Seeing a very unpleasant occurrence as the worst possible outcome. Jumping to the worst possible conclusion in a scenario. 

4. Magnifying. Exaggerating or blowing things out of proportion.

5. Minimizing. Someone who magnifies, may also minimize, or distort reality by minimizing something like, “yes I got a raise but it wasn’t very big and I’m not the best at my job.”

6. Jumping to conclusions. When you jump to conclusions you often interpret an event or situation negatively without having evidence to support the conclusion. Then you react to this assumption before it happens.

7. Controlling fallacies. Fallacy refers to an illusion, misconception or error. They can go two opposite ways: you either feel responsible or in control of everything in your life, or you feel you have no control over anything.

8. Measuring fairness always. This behavior refers to always measuring behavior and situation on a scale of fairness, and then finding that when other people don’t assign the same value of fairness to the event you become resentful. You believe what is fair and what isn’t and it upsets you when others don’t agree with you. Fairness is often self-serving and rarely absolute.

9. Blaming. Instead of seeing everything as your fault (personalization), you blame everything on someone or something else.

10. Always being right. This thinking leads a person to internalize his/her opinions as facts and not consider another person’s view or opinion. This pattern of communication makes it difficult to form and sustain healthy relationships.

11. Emotional reasoning. Mistaking your feelings for reality is emotional thinking. For example, if you feel scared, you might be telling yourself you are in real danger. This type of thinking can manifest as obsessive compulsion.

12. Fallacy of change. This distortion assumes other people have to change their behavior in order for you to be happy. It’s a selfish way to think.

Your therapist in Sugar Land talks about how to recognize and change cognitive distortions and negative thinking

The first step to addressing and changing thought patterns is to recognize them. Once you do this, you can work on reversing them. 

Sometimes cognitive distortions go hand in hand with mental health conditions like personality disorders. This can make it more challenging to change, but things like cognitive therapy can help you restructure these thought patterns.

The goal behind cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is that you learn to adjust your thoughts so you can have more positive emotional responses and behaviors.

If you feel like you struggle with one of the cognitive distortions above, or you feel weighed down with feelings of anxiety, depression or other mental health issues, call us today.

Learn about how working with a qualified therapist can help you transform negative thoughts and beliefs into empowering affirmations.