![]() In particular, we are able to determine how people are feeling toward us. Without individuals saying so, we know what they are feeling and why they act the way they do. A person may see a single, unpleasant event as a never-ending pattern of defeat. If something bad happens once, we expect it to happen over and over again. We come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure. You place people or situations in “either/or” categories, with no shades of gray or allowing for the complexity of most people and situations. Things are either “black-or-white.” We have to be perfect or we’re a failure–there is no middle ground. For instance, a person may pick out a single, unpleasant detail and dwell on it exclusively so that their vision of reality becomes darkened or distorted. We take the negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation. By refuting negative thoughts over and over again, they will slowly diminish overtime and be automatically replaced by more rational, balanced thinking.Īaron Beck first proposed the theory behind cognitive distortions and David Burns was responsible for popularizing it with common names and examples for the distortions. By learning to correctly identify distorted thoughts, a person can then respond to the distorted thoughts by balancing them with thoughts that are more balanced, and based on fact/reality rather than negative feelings. But with examination, we can often find evidence that our thoughts are NOT factual, but based on a set of negative thought patterns that have developed based on our feelings, rather than factual evidence.Ĭognitive distortions are at the core of what many cognitive-behavioral therapists and other kinds of health professionals try and help a person learn to change their thinking style. Our automatic thoughts can feel rational and accurate, and most of all, they can feel factual. These are typically thoughts that occur automatically, and are usually used to reinforce negative thinking or emotions. What’s a ‘cognitive distortion’ and why do so many people have them? Cognitive distortions are ways that our thought patterns can convince us that something is true or false.
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