July 25, 2023
Thinking errors – also known as cognitive distortions – are irrational beliefs that contribute to extreme decision making, poor behavior choices, and often exacerbate out of control emotions.
Thinking errors allow one to see the world the way they want to, often with little to no evidence. It could be based on how one feels, therefore utilizing these thinking errors supports that feeling and confirms the thinking.
Examples of Thinking Errors
1. All-Or-Nothing Thinking: Also known as black and white thinking, this allows someone to see things in one extreme or the other, with nothing in between.
2. Globalizing: Also known as overgeneralizing, this is taking one event and applying it to others, perhaps all others.
3. Catastrophizing: Fearing the worst in many situations. Dreading or assuming the worst outcome when faced with the unknown – without evidence – which leads worries to quickly escalate.
4. Emotional Reasoning: Accepting one’s emotions as fact. Often described as “I feel it, therefore it must be true.”
5. Minimizing/Maximizing: Understating or overstating the case; making unfair comparisons; blowing things out of proportion or shrinking the importance of something.
6. Negative Mental Filter: Focusing on or only seeing the negative; Filtering out the positives that do exist.
7. Should Statements: Statements made to yourself about what you “should” or “ought” or “must” do. They can also be applied to others, which creates a set of expectations others are not likely to meet.
8. Fortune Telling: None of us knows the future, but we sometimes pretend we do, often to our own detriment. This can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies.
9. Jumping to Conclusions: Making a negative interpretation or prediction without evidence to support a conclusion, often made when thinking about how others feel towards us and assuming their thoughts and intentions.
10. Personalizing: Making everything that happens, or doesn’t happen, somehow about you or related to you.
There are many more. I didn’t even mention Unreal Ideal, Mind Reading, Fallacy of Fairness, Labeling, or Disqualifying the Positive.
Thinking errors often show up in the symptoms of Anxiety, Depression, Trauma, Personality Disorders, and many others. Dealing with thinking errors requires an open mind to see things differently. Recognizing these cognitive distortions is the first step towards correcting them.
At Thrivology, we have experienced therapists that can help you address your individual
issues and give you the tools you need so you can live a life that thrives.
Please contact us today to schedule an appointment.
CEO at Thrivology
Todd has a Master of Science degree in Marriage & Family Therapy from Harding University and has been a therapist for over 22 years. He has extensive experience with teenagers and families treating relational problems, addictions and behavioral problems.
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