Thought Distortions

Every single one of us is on some sort of journey. And while these journeys are very different from each other in many, many ways, there is one aspect of our distinct journeys we all share. Thought distortions. I guarantee you will encounter these somewhere along the path of life.

What is a thought distortion (or cognitive distortion if we want to sound super scientific)? Simply put, they are “inaccurate or biased ways of thinking that shape how we interpret events, ourselves, and others.” Ugh. Stupid thought distortions.  

Since knowing is half the battle, here are 10 thought distortions identified by sciency people smarter than me. These little buggers trip us more than we’d like to admit sometimes. I’ve written about some of these individually, but here they are in a tidy little list. 😃 

1. All-or-Nothing Thinking: Viewing situations in absolutes and using words like “always” and “never”

2. Overgeneralization: Drawing broad conclusions from a single instance, experience, or event

3.  Mental Filtering: Focusing on the negative and ignoring the positive of a situation

4.  Catastrophizing: Expecting the worst possible outcome

5. Jumping to Conclusions: Making assumptions without evidence

6. Emotional Reasoning: Assuming feelings reflect reality (i.e., “I feel like a failure, so I am a failure”

7. Personalization: Feeling responsibility for events outside our control

8. Magnification and Minimization: Amplifying negatives and downplaying positives

9. “Should” Statements: Revising past events to punish ourselves for not acting differently

10. Magical Thinking: Believing thoughts or actions can influence unrelated events (i.e., “if I only think positive thoughts, nothing bad will happen”)

Dang. That’s a lot to absorb right there. But…now that we know these so-and-sos exist, we can manage them, address them, and reframe them. For example, recognizing when a thought distortion creeps in and labeling it takes much of its power. Or replacing extreme language with realistic language is helpful.

If you want to dig deeper into thought distortions, check out this article.

Are we always going to be able to minimize our thought distortions? Absolutely not. But if we can understand why we are experiencing a thought distortion and what that distortion actually is, we have a clearer path to navigate our way through the distortion.

Until next week!

Andy

(All written content created the old-fashioned way.)