![]() ![]() This cognitive distortion is also known as magnifying, and can also emerge as its opposite, minimizing. This trap involves imagining that the worst possible thing is about to happen, and predicting that you won’t be able to cope with it when in reality the worst-case scenario usually never happens and even if it did you’d probably be able to cope. This stops us from looking at all the aspects of a situation and drawing a more balanced conclusion.Įxample: “Everyone hated my presentation because Jack looked bored even though a lot of other people looked engaged and gave me compliments” Catastrophizing When you only focus on the negatives, you end up viewing the entire situation as negative and so, in your mind, everything is negative. Similar to black and white thinking, filtering involves only paying attention to the negative aspects of a situation while ignoring all the positive. Now my diet is ruined forever!” Filtering You had a small setback and all you need to do is go back tomorrow.Įxample: “I planned to eat only healthy foods but I ate a piece of chocolate. But, in reality, most situations are somewhere in the middle – missing the gym once doesn’t mean you have failed your exercise goals completely. And if you fall short of your expectations, you view yourself as a total failure. A situation is either good or bad, success or failure – there is no middle ground. This trap occurs when we only look at situations in terms of one extreme or the other. When we believe the future is already set in stone and negative, we often act like it is which can be a self-fulfilling prophecy once again.Įxample: “I just know I’m going to fail my exam” Similar to mind-reading, fortune-telling occurs when we predict that things will turn out bad. The problem is that no-one can read minds and we can never really know what others are thinking! Worst still, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy where we act as if they dislike us which makes them understandably pull away which is further evidence for the negative belief (“I knew they hated me”).Įxamples: “They are all making fun of me behind my back”. I’m definitely guilty of this one this is a trap that happens when we believe that we know what others are thinking and assume that they are thinking the worst of us. To help you identify these thinking traps when they occur I’ve listed the most common ones below: Mind reading Techniques like hypnosis can help you change these thinking patterns more quickly by guiding you into a suggestible state where these automatic thinking patterns become more malleable and open to change. As you continue to dispute this negative thinking over and over again, it will slowly diminish overtime and be automatically replaced by more rational, balanced thinking. ![]() Yet don’t you worry, you can overcome these thinking traps by learning to notice and identify when you’re using a cognitive distortion, acknowledging the negative thinking pattern, and refuting it. In fact, it’s not the event itself that causes feelings of negativity it’s your response to the event – your mindset. These thoughts are irrational or just plain wrong. These inaccurate thoughts are usually used to reinforce negative thinking patterns - telling ourselves things that sound rational and truthful in the moment, but in reality only serve to trigger feelings of negativity and pessimism. In 1976, psychologist Aaron Beck first proposed the theory behind cognitive distortions and in the 1980s, David Burns was responsible for popularizing it with common names and examples for the distortions.Ĭognitive distortions are the ways that our mind convinces us of one thing when in reality it’s completely untrue. Ever just know that someone else doesn’t like you without ever finding out for real? If you have, you may have been suffering from one of the many thinking traps or cognitive distortions that can hijack your brain. ![]()
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