Distortion Practice: 054

Spot the cognitive distortions in your life

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Jan 15

You can get better at revealing the cognitive distortions in your life with a little practice. Try identifying the distortions that are happening in this short story:

📖 Short story

Written by: Ewelina Ahmed, CBT Therapist, BABCP

You are going on holiday soon with two of your friends. You have just learned that one of them invited a couple of their friends to come along. Both of your friends know them but you don’t. You aren’t happy about it and think ‘It is going to be just like last year when I went on holiday with my mum and she invited her friend and as a result we didn’t get any quality time together. This holiday is not at all what I have planned, it will be terrible! This is the worst thing ever!’

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📜 Common distortions

👯‍ Generalizing: Assuming that because you experienced something in the past this must mean it will happen again. “A dog bit me when I was 5, therefore all dogs are dangerous and will bite me.”
☄️ Catastrophizing: Are you focused on the worst case scenario? Regardless of how likely it is.
🧠 Mind reading: Assuming what others think. “They probably think I'm an idiot.”
✨ Should statements: Pressuring yourself with things you should have done differently. “I should have eaten healthier today."
🌓 All or nothing thinking: Thinking in extremes. You are either a success or a failure. "She doesn't want to date me. I'll never find love.”
🕹️ Out of your control: Are you worrying about something out of your control?
🔮 Fortune telling: Assuming future events. “I just know that something is going to go wrong and I'm going to be late for my interview.”
🚫 Disqualifying the positive: Focusing only on the bad. “He said that I looked nice but he says that to everybody. He was just being polite."
🏷️ Labeling: Taking one characteristic of a person and applying it to the whole person. “I failed a test, so I'm a bad student.”
🔎 Magnifying the negative: Judging a situation entirely on the negative parts and not considering the positive parts. “I ate healthy this week, but I skipped the run I had planned.”
🎭 Emotional Reasoning: Assuming that just because it feels bad, it must be bad. Forgetting that our feelings are just a reaction to our thoughts. “I feel anxious so it must be scary!”
🪞 Comparing and despairing: Focusing only on the positive aspects in others and comparing ourselves negatively against them. ‘Their hair is so much better styled than mine, I look horrible in comparison’.

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💡 Answers

This is going to be just like last year when I went on holiday with my mum and she invited her friend and as a result we didn’t get any quality time together.

You are remembering a time in the past when something similar has happened and as a result it was disappointing. You are generalizing. This is a different situation and a different set of people. It is natural to think that previous experience might repeat itself but things are rarely exactly the same as they were the previous time. Every experience is different, hence generalizing is a thinking error.

This holiday is not at all what I have planned, it will be terrible!

You are thinking that because the holiday isn’t exactly as you have planned it, this means that it will be all bad. You are all or nothing thinking. Just because it isn’t all great doesn’t automatically mean it is all bad. For all you know you will get along with them and they will add to the group dynamic. The best thing to do is to wait and see.

This is the worst thing ever!

You are telling yourself that this is the worst thing that could have happened. You are catastrophizing. When things don’t go to plan, we often think that it will all be terrible but this is often not the case. You are imagining the worst-case scenario and how bad it is going to be but it might turn out to be completely fine or even better.

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