Haven’t we all found ourselves in situations where we use certain statements such as “I should stop thinking this way!” to cope with the matter accordingly? I’m sure it’s not just us, but we have seen other people using these sentences too. What are these statements exactly? To begin with, these sentences are something called Cognitive Distortions. Cognitive Distortions are habitual ways of thinking that are often inaccurate and negatively biased. They are basically an exaggerated or irrational thought pattern that lead to an onset of psychopathological states such as stress and depression. Today, we are going to talk about 10 such cognitive distortions. 

1. The first one and a very popular one is Labeling. It usually comes into picture where one labels oneself or others using a negative term such as “failure” or “lazy”. The person most often labels the negative term based on just one incident or just one type of behaviour. For example, a person might say, “You are a failure” to his daughter who for the first time scored less marks. 
2. The second distortion is called the All or Nothing Thinking. In this particular type of thinking, the person only functions in shades of black and white and ignores the grey in between. He might only emphasise on either all the negatives or all the positives of an event. For example, a woman eats a spoonful of ice cream and feels guilty that she cheated on her diet and thus, ends up eating a whole tub. The person who undergoes this distortion has a constant need for perfection. 
3. The third one is Overgeneralisation. I, personally, have seen a lot of my close friends indulge in this distortion. It happens when one experiences one negative event and he might generalize it to other events in his life. So, for example, a woman might get asked out on a date, but not a second one. She then overgeneralizes that this happens to her always and she will never find love in her life.
4. The fourth distortion is something that we all have experienced, either consciously or subconsciously. It is called the Mental Filter. When one only focuses on the negatives of an event and filters out all the positives, then it can be called a mental filter. A girl giving her presentation in a precise and correct manner, but fumbles on just one point, then keeping on ruminating over that little negative event is a perfect example of a mental filter. 
5. The fifth distortion is called Discounting the Positives. A person might have actually done a good job but he focuses only on what didn’t work or go well. For example, a person might say, “I could spend time with my children but I couldn't take them to their favorite place.” This distortion aids in hampering one’s self confidence to such an extent that even when he does his best, he is unable to appreciate himself for it. 
6. Well, I have to confess that I have experienced the sixth cognitive distortion, that is, Mind Reading. Basically, one assumes what the other person is thinking about oneself and this assumption is later turned into certainty due to a little incident that one feels has been triggered towards himself. But, the truth of the matter is that that particular incident has no clear focus on the person. This usually happens when we are already conscious about giving a presentation and another classmate just gives a smirk to his friend. We tend to mind-read that person that he is making fun of me with his friend but in reality, they are our assumptions. 
7. The seventh cognitive distortion is Fortune Telling. Now, don’t we all predict the future sometimes? But, fortune telling happens when one predicts all the negatives about the future events without any valid evidence. For example, a depressed person might feel that he is never going to improve, thus continuing his state of depression. 
8. The eighth distortion is called Magnification and Minimization. So, when one magnifies all the negative aspects of an event and minimizes all the positive aspects of an event, is when he is using this distortion. One might only magnify the negatives even when that negative event was not a catastrophe in reality. Whereas, he might minimize the positives in such a way as if they do not really matter. 
9. The ninth distortion is called Emotional Reasoning. This too is a very common one. We’ve all seen some people jumping to conclusions or assumptions based on their feelings. This is nothing but emotional reasoning. They think that because they are feeling in a certain way about a particular event, it is actually similar in reality. This takes place in the absence of any proper evidence, hence helping the people stick to their emotions. 
10. The last and final cognitive distortion is the use of Should Statements. As I mentioned in the start, we’ve all had times where we forced ourselves to behave or think in a particular way. But, it never really crossed our minds that maybe it isn’t necessary that we absolutely should behave in that particular way. When one pulls himself out of his comfort zone to achieve something that might be too far-fetched, is an example of a Should Statement. “I absolutely should be able to follow a routine.” This rule might take a toll on the person’s mental health as he might stretch himself to an exaggerated stage just so that he could achieve perfection. 

Well, I am pretty sure that we’ve encountered so many people including ourselves who have gotten into these cognitive distortions on a daily basis. Isn’t it weird that we see these events happening around us, we see people saying these sentences and we, as a society, believe that it’s just a way of coping with the stressors of life. It is high time that we realize that these are infact unhealthy ways of coping with  negative events. I hope this blog will help you to notice such cognitive distortions and change them into helpful thinking styles.

 

Posted 2 years ago