#13 - Cognitive Restructuring: Changing erroneous beliefs

#12 - Cognitive Restructuring: Check  & Change

#11 - Cognitive Distortions: Personalization 

#10 - Cognitive Distortions: Labeling 

Using critical words like 'should', 'must', or 'ought' can make us feel guilty, or like we have already failed. If we apply 'should' to other people the result is often frustration. 

Assuming that because we feel a certain way what we think must be true. I feel embarrassed so I must be an idiot. 

The cognitive distortion of catastrophizing is pretty much what you might think it is: making something into a catastrophe when it's not. When we catastrophize, we tell ourselves that something is so awful, so terrible, that we won't be able to handle it. That we would fall apart, or die. The more we tell ourselves the problem we are facing is a catastrophe, the more hopeless and helpless we will feel to effectively cope with it. Catastrophizing can result in increased anxiety and depression, and can make difficult situations feel even worse than they already are. There are several ways of rethinking catastrophic thinking to help you better handle adversity.

When you recognize catastrophizing, first ask yourself what about this situation is so terrible? Have you dealt with similar situations in the past? If so, did you survive? If you did survive, (and presumably you did) how? What did you do to weather the difficulty?

Jumping to conclusions is a common type of error or fallacy in reasoning or thinking, in which a person draws conclusions which are not warranted from available information. In the language of cognitive behavioral therapy, jumping to conclusions is one of the common cognitive distortions characteristic of depression and anxiety. In depression or anxiety, a person often falsely concludes that things are going to go wrong, or that they have done something wrong. However, people can also jump to false conclusions in ways that introduce positive bias, or other sorts of bias.

When jumping to conclusions, a person skips the step of considering possible interpretations for a situation, and instead jumps right to accepting whatever interpretation seems most plausible to them. In general, when people jump to conclusions, they tend to pick interpretations that fit their own existing view of the world. Jumping to conclusions, when it becomes a chronic problem, thus tends to lead to people getting stuck in their own viewpoint, even when it does not fit with reality.

Disqualifying the Positive can be difficult to identify sometimes, because you have the pretense of weighing both sides, and then making what seems to be a rationale decision before settling on your pre analysis conclusion.

The “Disqualifying the Positive” cognitive distortion acknowledges positive experiences but rejects them. For example, a person who receives a positive review at work may reject the idea that he is a competent employee and attribute the positive review to political correctness or to his boss simply not wanting to talk to you about what you have already deemed to be subpar performance. This is an especially malignant distortion since it can facilitate the continuance of negative thought patterns even in the face of a lot of evidence to the contrary.

In the area of dating and relationships It is important that we do our own work as individuals and ensure we are showing up in a relationship with an understanding of how we make decisions, our biases, and our habits. If we rely only on relationships, intimate partners, or sexual experiences to enhance our positive self-image, we may be more susceptible to this thought distortion and attracting the wrong person

Mental filter is a term used to describe one type of cognitive distortion, or faulty thought pattern, that can often lead to higher levels of anxiety and depression. When thinking through a mental filter, a person is focusing only on the negative aspects of a situation and filtering out all of the positive ones. People with this form of negative thinking often see their glass as being half empty rather than half full in any situation.

People diagnosed with panic disorder frequently use a mental filter to sift out all of the pleasant and fulfilling parts of their lives, while bringing more attention to their inadequacies and dissatisfaction. They may center on their feelings of loneliness and avoidance behaviors, failing to notice ways in which they have actually learned to cope with panic disorder. Anxiety levels will continue to rise as positivity continues to be filtered out, while the self-defeating thoughts are intensified.