Today we will know some of the mechanisms that are present in all people, that have a very important role, but that often go unnoticed, you could say that they are like perfect perpetrators of the crime, however, before defining what cognitive distortions are, I will present a fragment of the report of a patient who sought psychological consultation:
“Every time I’m depressed, I feel like a cosmic shock has hit me and I start to see things differently. Change can happen in less than an hour. My thoughts turn negative and pessimistic. When I look at my past, I am convinced that nothing I’ve done is worth it.
- All happy moments seem like an illusion.
- My creations seem as true as the stage of a western.
- I am convinced that my true personality has no value or meaning.
- I cannot progress in my work because doubt paralyzes me.
- I cannot keep my mouth shut because suffering is unbearable?.
We are looking at a patient with depressive symptoms, although she has also reported symptoms of anxiety, but this is of minor importance, the important thing is that these symptoms are the result of a situation, an event or something that happened to her or not. .
We often say that we feel a certain way because something “happened to us”, as if necessarily one point took us to another and we had nothing to say about it, however, we tend to ignore the thoughts we have or, which are actually the same, those internal messages that we tell ourselves after we realize a fact.
The role of thoughts or our internal dialogue is critical to understanding how we reach the emotional state we are in at some point, so our thoughts will influence how we feel in the same amount or more as himself. Culinary analogy, the composition of a certain food influences the taste of the food, but it also makes a difference, and a lot, in the way we chew.
Is it what ultimately determines the appearance of feelings such as sadness, anger, anger, happiness, or fear?
The negative thoughts that invade our minds are the real cause of our emotions, the opposite is also true, since thoughts are the starting point to consider when we want to have good emotional control.
I propose an exercise. Whenever you feel depressed by something, try to identify what thought you had at that particular time, since thoughts create emotional states, we can change them if we change those thoughts.
Someone will probably be skeptical about all this. The reason is that his negative way of thinking has become so entrenched in his life that he has become automatic. Many thoughts cross the mind automatically and fleetingly, without us nodding. They’re as obvious and natural as the way we have a fork.
It is an obvious neurological fact that before we can experience an event, we must treat it in our minds and make sense of it, consciously or unconsciously. Thoughts, in general, feed on the dialogues we have with us. So this sentence that has centuries of history makes sense:
“People are not bothered by events, but by their opinions (thoughts) about events. -Epithet 1st century BC-
Rational means true, logical, pragmatic and reality-based (at least in this article we will assume this meaning), making it a facilitator for people to achieve their goals and goals (Ellis, 1979a).
On the other hand, the irrational is the false, the illogical, that is not based on reality and that prevents or prevents people from achieving their most basic goals and objectives (at least we will assume this meaning in this article). which interferes with our survival and happiness (Ellis, 1976).
Albert Ellis, a precursor to cognitive therapy, identified a number of basic irrational ideas that were present in most people. Let’s look at some examples of irrational ideas:
There are more irrational ideas, but we’re not going to put them here because we’re going to focus on cognitive distortions.
We are bombarded by irrational thoughts in our culture. When we listen to music, we see movies, novels, we read novels, we find many irrational thoughts that we can incorporate, if we have not already done so, into our own beliefs.
I’m not saying that we should stop watching TV or listen to music or that we should turn away from society, but that we should question what we hear or see on TELEVISION and ask questions before adding those ideas to our beliefs and values.
“There are three monsters that keep us from moving on: I have to get it right, you have to treat me well and life should be easy. -Albert Ellis-
Thus, cognitive distortions or thought errors are distorted thoughts about the reality around us, they are often automatic and can take a lot of work to realize that we have them, so the help of a specialist psychologist can be of great help. The next step, once we have identified them, would be to change these distortions to others?Realistic? Reflections or adaptations.
Cognitive distortions are basically responsible for making us sad, anxious, angry, etc. , by identifying and modifying them we feel better.
It’s a distortion in which we tend to see anything in an extreme way, without any means. Is this the typical “all-or-nothing” thought?or “black or white. ” We believe that things can be good or bad, that people can be perfect or fail. Example: “Either I succeed in everything I do, or I’m completely useless. “
It is a question of drawing general conclusions from particular facts, that is, if something negative has happened in a situation, it is expected to happen again and again, for example, if a young person receives a no from a girl, he can generalize thinking that all women will reject him in the future.
The person chooses a negative detail of any situation and adheres exclusively to it, so he considers the whole situation as negative, for example, the wife who only highlights her husband’s negative points towards others, without commenting on the various aspects that are actually greater than the negatives, such as “responsible”, “worker”, “loving”, among others.
It is a question of assuming the reasons or intentions of others, considering this interpretation to be the only one valid when in fact there are several other possible ones. We think we can guess exactly what others think, drawing false conclusions most of the time. This means that we draw hasty conclusions by reading each other’s thoughts. Example: “You’re not paying attention, you’re certainly not interested in what I’m talking about. “This is one of the most common cognitive distortions in a relationship.
It is the tendency to connect something of the environment with itself, that is, we think that everything revolves around us and, therefore, we get used to distorting the facts, another type of customization is to compare ourselves with others, for example, if someone makes an open comment about the irresponsibility of people, we consider that that comment is addressed to us. The person very sensitive to personalization believes that he is the target of indirect constants.
At the root of this distortion is the belief that what a person feels must be true. We take our own emotions as proof of truth for lack of objective data. Example: “If I feel like a loser, it’s because I’m a loser. “
It is a distortion in which we draw certain conclusions without having all the data we need to do so. The conclusion we reached is therefore arbitrary and unfounded. Example: “My family will certainly not like this food that I prepare. “
Magnification occurs when we focus only on our mistakes, fears or imperfections and exaggerate their importance: “Oh my God, I made a mistake. What a horrible thing!? Minimization occurs when we minimize our qualities:” is not as smart or as good at math. Doesn’t that mean anything?
“The spirit that opens up to a new idea will never return to its original size. Albert Ellis?
In this distortion, the person behaves according to uncompromising rules that should govern the relationship of all people, the words that indicate the presence of this distortion are?Should? Or?? With this rule, the individual judges not only others, but also himself. . For example, “Shouldn’t others understand me, should they have treated me like this?”
This is an extreme form of excessive generalization. Instead of describing the mistake we made, we put ourselves on a negative label: “I’m a loser. “When someone’s behavior doesn’t seem right to us, we put another negative label: Is he a liar?”
How to combat our irrational thoughts includes
One way or another, we have all lived at least one of these cognitive distortions, and we will continue to be, on the other hand, the more we become familiar with them and understand how they act particularly in each person, the more we can achieve. control their effects and even enjoy them.