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Earlier this year, my luggage was horrifically mangled by the luggage transport machinery at the airport in Oakland, California. I was so in awe of the extent of the mutilation that I had to take a bunch of pictures of it. Up until the machine ripped it to shreds, this had been a fairly high quality REI travel bag, made of sturdy materials. Note how the strong fabric is torn, mangled and burned. Note also the metal strut that juts out of the side of the bag like a broken bone. In the close-up, you can see how intense the forces were in the machine by the way the end is ground down. Totally crazy! Click the thumbnails below for larger versions.

I offer these pictures because I think they’re amusing and astonishing, but there’s also a tie-in to the series of articles about cognitive distortions we’re in the midst of: An example of a Over-generalizing would be: “Bad things always happen to me!”

Before we move on to the next cognitive distortion, let’s bear in mind that these distortions arise in automatic thoughts. They happen so fast and reflexively that you are usually not even conscious they’re happening. Later in this series we’ll look at techniques to expose and dismantle them.

In the last post, we looked at the second cognitive distortion on the list: Over-generalizing. Today, let’s look at the third: Mental Filter.

In the mental filter distortion, you focus like a laser on one negative or upsetting aspect of an event or situation to the exclusion of all else.

Example One: Franklin’s Drive

This morning, on his way to work, Franklin accidently cut someone off with his car in traffic. Even though in every other respect his driving was fine, he spends the rest of the day berating himself for his single mistake. He thinks: I shouldn’t have cut that person off. I’m a bad driver.

Example Two: Harry’s Unrequited Love

Harry’s life is good. He has a job he loves, a home he’s happy to return to every day, and he’s soon going on a vacation abroad he’s been looking forward to. But all he can think about, over and over, is how the woman he’d like to court has rejected him. He thinks: Why doesn’t she feel about me the way I feel about her?

Example Three: Tina at the Mall

As Tina walks through a crowded shopping mall, people are courteous, and a few smile at her as the pass by. Then someone is rude to her. She thinks: “People are so rude.”

Notice that in all three examples, the thinker concentrates solely on a single upsetting aspect of the event or situation.

In the next post, we’ll take a closer look at the next cognitive distortion on the list: Disqualifying the Positive.

In the last post, we looked at the first cognitive distortion on the list: All or Nothing Thinking. Today, let’s look at the second: Over-generalizing.

When we over-generalize, we apply something specific too broadly. It’s a destructive form of exaggeration. Perhaps it’s easiest to see in examples:

Example One: Reginald at the Supermarket

Reginald parks his car at the local supermarket and goes inside to do his shopping. When he comes out, someone has dinged his door. He thinks: Bad things always happen to me.

Example Two: Dead-end Shirley

Shirley is stuck in an unfulfilling, dead-end job. One day, while on lunch break, she runs into an old friend whom she hasn’t seen in years. It turns out, her friend is very successful. Shirley thinks: I’ll never be a success.

Example Three: Emil’s Dinner of Doom

Emil is engrossed in a television show when he suddenly remembers that he had been cooking something in the oven. He runs to the kitchen only to find his dinner is burned to a crisp. He thinks: Why do I always screw up?

Notice how each of the example thoughts above take a specific thing (“Someone has dinged my car”, “I’m not as successful as I’d like to be”, “I burned my dinner”) and over-generalize it so that it’s gigantic? (“Bad things always happen to me”, “I’ll never be a success”, “Why do I always screw up?”)

In the next post, we’ll take a closer look at the next cognitive distortion on the list: Mental Filter.

In the last post, we took a quick peek at the list of 10 cognitive distortions. Let’s dive in a little deeper.

Today we’ll look at the first cognitive distortion on the list: All or Nothing Thinking.

In All or Nothing Thinking, a single imperfection equates to total failure. It’s a view that demands total perfection in absolute, black or white terms. People who tend toward this distortion see events as completely good or completely bad, and see themselves as complete successes or complete failures.

Example One: Bob the Tennis Pro

Bob is a young, professional tennis player. He is very good and has a promising future. His record is stellar — he has many wins under his belt and no losses. But then he loses a match. He thinks: This loss proves I’m not a good tennis player. I’m a failure.

Example Two: Love-struck Sue

Sue has started a new romantic relationship. One day she suggests an outing to her new boyfriend, but he declines. She’s crushed. She thinks: Either he loves me or he doesn’t. This proves he doesn’t.

Example Three: Jeff and the Problematic Code

Jeff is a programmer. He has worked for the same well-known technology company for many years. One day at lunch, his colleagues point out a flaw in the design of one of his programs. He thinks: I always mess up.

In the next post, we’ll take a closer look at the next cognitive distortion on the list: Over-generalizing.

In the last article, we took our first glimpse at Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). To review, we discussed three key points:

• All emotions arise from thoughts. All of them.
• Thoughts that cause negative emotions such as depression are automatic and easily escape our awareness.
• It’s possible to “debug” our thinking and thereby prevent negative emotions from arising in the first place.

Thoughts that give rise to negative emotions such as depression and anxiety but are incorrectly based on a distorted view of reality are called thinking errors or cognitive distortions.

Perhaps you feel you’re free of cognitive distortions. Unfortunately, this is extremely unlikely. Almost without exception, we all fall prey to them to one degree or another. If you ever find yourself depressed or anxious, it’s likely you’re suffering from one or more distortions of your making. Don’t worry; it’s perfectly natural, and the good news is you can take control of these distortions and ward them off in the future.

Cognitive therapists have identified 10 cognitive distortions. In future articles, we’ll look at each of them in depth, but for now here’s the list:

• All or Nothing
• Over-generalizing
• Mental Filter
• Disqualifying the Positive
• Jumping to Conclusions
• Magnification (or Catastrophizing)
• Emotional Reasoning
• Should Statements
• Labeling
• Personalization

For more information about cognitive distortions, read Feeling Good or come back tomorrow for the next article in this series.

Disclaimer: One of the main reasons I started this blog is to share the benefits of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. I am not a therapist and I am not dispensing medical advice. If you find these concepts intriguing, you should either read David Burn’s excellent book Feeling Good or seek professional counseling.

So, what is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)? CBT is a type of psychotherapy developed by Aaron T. Beck. The key principle of CBT is that all of our emotions arise from our thoughts. All of our emotions. So, if you’re feeling happy, angry, or sad — those feelings started with thoughts in your mind.

This is all fine and well when our thoughts are reasonable and free of distortion. But what happens when our thoughts are distorted? Distorted thoughts (or “thinking errors” or “cognitive distortions”) also give rise to emotions — usually anger or depression. For example, if you meet a stranger and think to yourself, “Oh no. This person thinks I’m stupid,” you will feel sad. (We will explore why that thought may be distorted in future articles.) Another example of a cognitive distortion is: “I’m a failure. I never do anything right.” (Actually, there are two distortions in that thought, as we’ll see later on.)

The tricky part of all this is that these cognitive distortions are so automatic and happen so reflexively and quickly that we’re not conscious of them. You may think, “Oh, I don’t say horrid things like that to myself,” but, sadly, most of us do — we’re just don’t know it. We know we get discouraged, or feel depressed, but we don’t realize that we’re creating those emotions with our thoughts. Remember: all emotions arise from our thoughts.

Fortunately, with practice, we can dismantle and avoid these cognitive distortions. And that means we can head off the suffering we cause ourselves. In future articles, I will discuss techniques to help “debug” our thinking and offer exercises you can try at home. Some of these techniques will be from the world of psychotherapy and others will be from Buddhism, which is a philosophy that harmonizes beautifully with CBT.