The 10 Cognitive Distortions Making You Miserable

Cognitive distortions are thoughts that cause individuals to perceive reality inaccurately. This happens when we are stressed, anxious, depressed or fearful. 

These strong emotions can create mental filters or biases (aka cognitive distortions) that only make us feel more miserable, fuel overthinking, and anxiety and make us feel bad about ourselves. 

Cognitive distortions look like this - it can augment your reality.

Ever wondered why you can't just shake off an event, why you continue to ruminate over something that happened years ago or why you feel so bad about a situation? The answer most likely lies in your cognitive distortions.

Cognitive distortions are patterns of thinking that are irrational and negatively biased. In other words, cognitive distortions are your mind convincing you to believe negative things about yourself and your world that are not necessarily true.

Our thoughts have a great impact on how we feel and how we behave. When you treat these negative thoughts as facts, you may see yourself and act in a way based on faulty assumptions.

Everyone falls into cognitive distortions on occasion. It’s part of the human experience. They are a type of defence mechanism that our brain uses to save us from experiencing bad or harmful things or help us to preserve ourselves. It's like saying it's better to live in illusion than to come face to face with the reality of the situations and heavy emotions.

They can contribute to negative emotions and behaviours. Here are 10 common cognitive distortions along with their meanings and examples:

1. All-or-Nothing Thinking (Black-and-White Thinking):

Meaning: Seeing things in extreme terms, with no middle ground.

Example: "If I'm not perfect, then I'm a failure."

2. Overgeneralization:

Meaning: Drawing broad conclusions based on limited evidence or a single incident.

Example: "I didn't get the job I applied for. I'll never get any job."

3. Mental Filter (Selective Abstraction):

Meaning: Focusing exclusively on negative details while ignoring positive aspects.

Example: "I received several compliments on my presentation, but I made one small mistake. I'm such a failure."

4. Disqualifying the Positive:

Meaning: Rejecting positive experiences or feedback by insisting they "don't count" for some reason.

Example: "My friends said I did a good job, but they're just being nice. They don't mean it."

5. Jumping to Conclusions:

Meaning: Making negative interpretations without evidence or despite contradictory evidence. There are 2 types of jumping to conclusions you can do: mind reading and fourtune telling.

  Examples:

      Mind Reading: Assuming you know what others are thinking without evidence.

        I can tell my boss thinks I'm incompetent because of the way they looked at me."

Fortune Telling: Predicting the worst possible outcome without evidence.

        "I'll never find a partner. I'm destined to be alone forever."

6. Magnification and Minimization (Catastrophizing):

Meaning: Exaggerating the importance of negative events while minimizing or downplaying positive ones. Or doing the opposite and maximizing or blowing things out of proportion.

   Example: "I spilled coffee on my shirt. My whole day is ruined now!"

7. Emotional Reasoning:

Meaning: Assuming that because you feel a certain way, what you think must be true.

Example: "I feel anxious about this presentation, so it must mean I'm going to embarrass myself."

8. Should Statements:

    Meaning: Holding rigid beliefs about how things "should" or "ought" to be.

   Example: "All teachers should be kind, fair and benevolent, since she is not she does not deserve to be a teacher."

9. Labeling and Mislabeling:

Meaning: Overgeneralizing a behaviour or trait into a negative global judgment about oneself or others.

Example: "I made a mistake at work. I'm such an idiot."

10. Personalization or Blaming:

Meaning: Blaming oneself or others for events that are outside of personal control or responsibility.

Example: "It's my fault my friend is upset. I should have been more supportive."