cognitivedistortion – allure of madison

A couple of months ago I wrote a blog post on 10 cognitive distortions. These distortions are ways that our brains twist our thinking and cause a negative thought patterns. Unfortunately, I left you guys hanging on how to resolve some of these thought patterns you might have encountered! Here are the 9 ways to untwist your thinking and put yourself in a better mental state.

In no way is this medical advice! I am providing you with information that I have learned and tried to help with my negative thought patterns. For more information on this topic check out David D. Burns a professor of psychiatry who wrote a book called Feeling good on this topic. Let’s get into untwisting our thinking.

1. Identifying the Distortion

The first way to untwist your thinking is to write down the negative thoughts you are having. When you write down your thoughts it allows you to analyze what is going on! In my previous blog, I list the 10 Cognitive Distortions, looking through that list to identify which one best relates to your situation. This will help you understand your thought pattern and ease or diffuse the negativity by understanding what your mind is doing.

2. Examine the Evidence

Continuing with the writing method! We want to help reverse the thought or find the truth. Instead of believing the negativity try and find positivity. If you believe you are not good at anything, for example, try writing down 5 things you are good at. This method helps you see the other side of the thought.

3. The Double Standard Method

This method is about your thought pattern. Instead of putting yourself down treat yourself with compassion and do something for yourself. Give yourself the same advice you would give to a friend experiencing the same situation! You would be a lot more gentle with a friend. So treat yourself the same way.

4. The Experimental Technique

Test yourself and your negative thoughts! Try and prove that your thoughts are not real. Do an experiment to prove otherwise. For instance, If you believe that eating in front of other people makes them believe you are disgusting. You want to test this theory. Once you know what you are testing rate the strentgh of this belief. Ask around and see what other people think of your concept. Conduct the experiement with people close to you or take a friends and complete it in a public space. Reflect on the results and try changing or adjusting the belief.

5. Thinking in Shades of Grey

This method works particularly well for the all or nothing thinking thought pattern. To refresh you memory, the all or nothing thinking distortion is when you believe you are a success or failure and there is little to no in between. The shades of grey are all of the other facts, opinons and beliefs surrounding you that are overlooked during this pattern of thinking. While using this method you want to rate your thought on a scale from 0-100. This helps you avoid seeing yourself as a failure and helps see it as a partial success. The rating helps you see the in between and the severity of the event.

6. The Survey Method

This method can be helpful but also is not always the best. The survey method occurs when you reach out to friends, family or peers and ask if they have ever had these thoughts occur. For example, social anxiety can occur in new situations, and by relating to other’s experiences it can ease anxiety. It is not my favourite method, for instance some people are very confident and will not experience social anxiety. They may be very bold and say that it is not a big deal and be less sympathetic. Their answer should not reflect how you feel as they are experiencing it very differently. Try to find someone to relate to with similar values and beliefs to yours or someone who is empathetic about your social anxiety.

7. The Semantic Method

This method requires changing the language of your negative thoughts! When you say you shouldn’t have done something or should have done something it is important to change the language. It would be better if I did it this way instead of tearing yourself down. This relates to the growth mindset which I have written about on a instagram and the blog! Check it out @allureofmadison or How to Develop a Growth Mindset

8. Re- Attribution

Re-attribution is rethinking your choice of negative thinking. If you say you are bad at something this technique makes you list all the contributing factors that could lead you to be not good at something. This lets you focus on the problem and not the outcome! This theory also comes in handy when you become a victim of self blaming. Identifying other root causes to the problem other then yourself can give you a better outlook on the event or situation.

I have added a worksheet to help your tackle some of the harder concepts. This worksheet will helps you break down your negative thoughts and help you readjust and see these thoughts in another way. Writing things down helps you decompress and most of the time gives you a different perspective on the situation at hand. I hope this helps and you try this next time you are in a negative thought pattern.

9. Cost-Benefit Analysis

Pull out that pen and paper again! This technique involves laying out the advantages and disadvantages of a feeling, behaviour, self-defeating beliefs, or negative thoughts! This can be beneficial to see the disadvantages of being negative. This can be a very important technique when a person is procrastinating a decision or is overwhelemed by a choice. Laying out your options and weighing out the pros and cons helps you better decide. This method allows people to view all potential outcomes. I have attached a worksheet for this method specifically. This has helped me a lot when I become overwhelemed making decisions. It weighs out all of the options good and bad. It provides a great visual and assists you better by laying out all the pros and cons. Also, it makes you consider all options. In this example, I use tolerating distress but you can substitute that for any situation.

These 9 ways to untwist your thinking can be super beneficial. I encourage you all to try these methods in different situations that arise in your life. If you are looking for more information you can refer to Cogntive Behavioural Therapy techniques and tips online or check out the book by David Burns. I hope you found this blog helpful. I wish you all good health and happy thoughts.

Lots of love,

Madison.

Sometimes your mind runs wild, it happens to everyone. Your mind starts releasing thoughts that are irrational or exaggerated and you do not notice that these thoughts aren’t normal. These kinds of thoughts are cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions are reinforced when we do not try and untwist our thoughts. We must recognize how our mind is working and find ways to settle our mind and put a positive outlook back into our perspective. These thoughts can be recurring or can come out of the blue.

David Burns M.D. released the Feeling Good Handbook in 1989 and suggested that there are 10 cognitive distortions that people experience in their everyday life.

All or Nothing Thinking

This type of thinking is where you see things in black or white. This means that you regard activities as either a success or failure; there is no in-between. This kind of thinking involves even the slightest bit of uncertainty is seen as a failure. For example, if you were in an interview and you were caught off guard by a question and you don’t believe your answer was good enough. A person who thinks this way would see the whole thing as a failure and waste of time due to the mind focusing on that one slight set back.

2. Overgeneralization

Overgeneralization occurs when past events that did not turn out well or failed affect how you see your future. For example, the boyfriend who may have broken up with you last year doesn’t mean that you will never find love again. Overgeneralization is when you believe that you cannot achieve anything again because of previous situations that relate. It can leave you feeling hopeless and lost. This type of thinking can cause major setbacks in life.

3. Mental Filter

This is a very common distortion of thinking in this digital world. Through millions of comments and likes it can be hard to not focus what people say about you. When the mental filter distortion comes into effect is when out of 20 positive comments there is one that is negative leading you to only focus on that negative. This focus can last for up to days you can even obsess over this reaction.

4. Discounting the Positive

Discounting the positive occurs when you achieve something no matter how big and you say it doesn’t count or it’s not a big deal. Anything that you achieve should be celebrated no matter how big or small. Not rewarding yourself takes the joy out of activities. It also makes you believe that you aren’t achieving anything. For example, passing a test should be celebrated and not judged if you could’ve done better or if your friend received a higher score.

5. Jumping to Conclusions

This one is pretty obvious, and you may have experienced it before. This is when you overthink and interpret things with no facts to support your thinking. It can be demonstrated in two ways.

Mind Reading: This kind of jumping to conclusions is when you think you know what others are thinking. This normally occurs when you believe others are thinking about you in a negative light or talking about you in general.

Fortune Telling: This occurs before the situation even happens. Your mind jumps to conclusions and guesses what is going to happen in the future thinking that is going to end badly.

6. Magnification

Magnification occurs when a person exaggerates the importance of a problem or a shortcoming. For example, it is not the end of the world to get 60% on a test worth 5%. It will not dramatically impact you or your mark, but this instance can be blown out of proportion at the moment. Another way this could be looked at is if you don’t get a job it does not mean you won’t get another one. It just means you have to keep trying.

7. Emotional Reasoning

This one is a hard spot to be in mentally. Emotional reasoning captures the emotion you feel reflect the way things are. You may personally think you’re overweight but in the eyes of others and doctors you aren’t. Your mind is telling you are, so you are believing it. Another big one is you may feel lonely and connect that you must be unloved and not cared for which again is certainly not the case.

8. Should Statements

Should statements occur when the situation did not go as expected or planned and you allow yourself to have guilt seep in. It should equate to not doing or wishing something would happen. These should statements could be turned into motivation but sometimes the only thing they do is make us feel worse about what we’re not doing.

I should exercise more but I have to do ____.
I should stretch at night but I’m too tired.
I should try that but that requires a lot of time.

Reframing perspective and trying to understand why you should or the benefits of doing something will help make should statements more motivating and empowering then something you just say.

9. Labelling

Photo by Linda Eller-Shein on Pexels.com

Labeling is a form of all or nothing thinking but is more extreme to the point of downing yourself and you becoming your own enemy number one. I have been a victim of labelling on multiple occasions and it is an error that I try my best to change. Labelling for instance could be not believing you’re not living up to the standards of others and calling yourself a loser or stupid. It could be deciding to take a different path and labelling yourself a failure. Labelling is irrational and causes your self-esteem to drop and encourage more anxiety. Looking at your situation in a positive light and boosting yourself up with positive self-talk can help get you out of this slump.

10. Personalization and Blame

Personalization and blame are important things to recognize. Not every problem or situation that arises in your life is your fault. Blame is another important thing to realize you may do. When you send your child to school and they struggle in math don’t take that to heart. It does not mean you are a bad mother. It also may not mean that the teacher isn’t good. Personalization and blame lead to feelings of guilt and shame. Blaming yourself always deters from solving the real issue or problem that has occurred. Also blaming others when they aren’t at fault can cause frustration and guilt.

These 10 cognitive distortions can play a big role in the lives of those who struggle with anxiety and depression. The cognitive distortions can overwhelm the mind of anyone who is facing a challenge or is not feeling confident in themselves. It is important to realize that these distortions exist so that in the future or the now we can help reverse and get out of these poor mental states and improve our mental health together! Stay tuned on the blog this week for some tricks to untwist your thinking which will help you overcome the cognitive distortions.

Also, if you are looking for more information and want to dive deeper into this topic you can pick up David D. Burns, M.D. book The Feeling Good Handbook available on amazon or at chapters!