DevYou

Wow. I’ve received quite a few new readers recently. That’s wonderful. Welcome!

For those of you who just arrived here’s a quick index of all the posts in my recent series of articles on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy basics:

• I. What is CBT? – An explanation of what Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is.
• II. An Overview of Cognitive Distortions – An introduction to, and a list of, the ten cognitive distortions:
  • All or Nothing
  • Over-generalizing
  • Mental Filter
  • Disqualifying the Positive
  • Jumping to Conclusions
  • Magnification (or Catastrophizing)
  • Emotional Reasoning
  • Should Statements
  • Labeling
  • Personalization

The next articles in the series looked at each distortion and provided examples.

• III. Distortion One – All Or Nothing Thinking
• IV. Distortion Two – Over-generalizing
• V. Distortion Three – Mental Filter
• VI. Disqualifying the Positive
• VII. Jumping to Conclusions
• VIII. All Remaining Five Distortions! – In the interest of moving the series along at a reasonable pace, I bundled all five remaining distortions into one post: Magnification, Emotional Reasoning, Should Statements, Labeling, and Personalization.

Finally, as the ninth and last post of the basics series, I posted: IX. The Triple Column Technique, which teaches the fundamental technique for combatting cognitive distortions and the negative emotions they create.

Though the “basics” series is complete, there will be plenty more discussion of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy in the near future.

Today’s post represents a change in format. Rather than examine the remaining five cognitive distortion on our list one-per-post, let’s pick up the pace and cover all five today. That way we can move on to the good stuff: doing something about them!

Ready? Let’s go!

• Magnification – Your thoughts magnify the negatives and minimize the positives of an event or situation.
• Emotional Reasoning – Your thoughts and decisions are based on how you feel rather than what’s really going on in reality.
• Should Statements – Your thoughts emphasize what you or circumstances should be, rather than how you or things actually are.
• Labeling – Your thoughts assign a specific name, or label, to you or someone else. This label is absolute and negative, such as: “I’m a failure.”
• Personalization Your thoughts assign all responsibility and causality to you personally. You assume that you directly caused events or circumstances though that’s not the case in reality and you actually had less direct control than you believe.

For a thorough examination of these distortions, please also see Feeling Good by David D. Burns.

In upcoming posts, we’ll learn how to detect these often-elusive but always detrimental cognitive distortions and how to deal with them.

The next cognitive distortion on the list is Jumping to Conclusions.

In this cognitive distortion, you arrive at conclusions (usually upsetting ones) prematurely. There are two forms this distortion can take:

• Mind Reading – In this form of Jumping to Conclusions, you decide you know what others are thinking. Assuming that others are thinking negative thoughts about you can lead to distress and depression.
• Fortune Telling – In this form, you make predictions about the future. Assuming that bad things are going to happen can also lead to distress and depression.

Example: Clyde’s Dinner Conversation

Clyde is having dinner with friends. As the conversation picks up speed, he grows ever quieter. His conversational style is slower and more thoughtful than the others at the table, and the conversation is moving so swiftly he finds it hard to keep up. He thinks: Everyone thinks I’m stupid. This is an example of the Mind Reading form of Jumping to Conclusions.

Example: The Magazine Rejection of Doom

Leslie has always wanted to try freelance writing. One day while reading a magazine, she thinks of a great article idea. She considers pitching the article to the magazine, but then changes her mind and thinks: They’ll just reject it. This is an example of the Fortune Teller form of Jumping to Conclusions.

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

The next cognitive distortion on the list is Disqualifying the Positive. In this cognitive distortion, you reject the positive aspects of an event or situation, leaving only the negative. When a positive thought arises, it’s quickly knocked away by a negative one.

Example: Miranda’s Hair

Miranda and Phoebe are having a chat over coffee. Phoebe mentions how great Miranda’s hair looks. Miranda dismisses the comment and instead talks about how much weight she’s gained and how unhappy she is with the way she looks.

Example:

After coffee with Miranda, Phoebe is walking to her car when she runs into our old buddy Bob, the tennis player. She asks him how it’s going, and he looks sad and says, “Not well. My tennis game is in the toilet.” Phoebe says, “But, Bob, didn’t you just win that big match you were excited about?” Bob looks even more upset and says, “Yes, I did. But that doesn’t matter. I just played another match this weekend and I lost. I’m terrible.”

It seems Phoebe’s words are lost on both of her friends and their Disqualifying the Positive cognitive distortions.

In the next post, we’ll take a closer look at the next cognitive distortion on the list: Jumping to Conclusions.

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.