CBT: Cognitive Distortions …

Today in PHP we learned about cognitive distortions. What are cognitive distortions? “Cognitive distortions are internal mental filters or biases that increase our misery, fuel our anxiety, and make us feel bad about ourselves.” [1] We are continuously processing information and the shortcuts we create for ourselves help us with this burden. But what happens when we get things wrong? It can send us into a panic, we may feel like the world is coming to an end, and instead of being our positive hopeful selves can get depressed hard on ourselves. So what can be done?

First we need to identify the many different cognitive distortions we are capable of having. The three main cognitive distortions are:

(1) Black-and-white (or all-or-nothing) thinking: I never have anything interesting to say.

(2) Jumping to conclusions (or mind-reading): The doctor is going to tell me I have cancer.

(3) Personalization: Our team lost because of me.” [2]

There are helpful and unhelpful filters that we use when sifting through information. We are constantly trying to “come up with insight or solutions to problems we are concerned about,” [3] whether or not we have a psychiatric condition. For example dealing with anxiety about challenges ahead may require us to decipher fact from fiction or just plain self sabotage. According to Harvard Health, “Ruminative thinking — negative thought patterns that loop repeatedly in our minds.” Is an example of how we create defeative thinking that interferes with our ability to perform and persevere. Beware of negative filtering that can cause depressive symptoms and leave us feeling withdrawn and unmotivated.

For example, what can be done in avoidance of the cognitive distortion: negative filtering which is “focusing on negative things and discounting positive things.” [4] The solution to this cognitive distortion would be to recognize when it’s occurring and changing our interpretation to the positive. Negative filtering occurs when we set unreasonably high expectations of ourselves which can be harmful, perfectionism. It’s this type of negative filtering that can result in depressed mood. Affecting our self esteem and how we feel.

Catch it Check it Change it which refers to “a simplified version of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), which applies to the way you see yourself, the world and other people, affecting your thoughts and feelings, and can ultimately lead to mental health problems.” [5] Furthermore the CBT Triangle addresses how these changes can be made by understanding the “concept of changing negative patterns of thought.” We must learn how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all connected. [6] CBT teaches us that, “while we cannot control every aspect of the world around us, we can take control of how we interpret and deal with things in our own environment.” [7]