Cognitive distortions are fundamentally bad ways of processing information, i. e. misinterpretations of what is happening around us, generating multiple negative consequences. People with depression have a view of reality in which cognitive distortions play a greater role. To some extent, we can all, at some point in our lives, have some kind of cognitive distortion and know how to detect and analyze them will help us to have a clearer mind, to develop more realistic and, above all, positive attitudes. are the most important cognitive distortions.
The person feels 100% responsible for the events in which he participated, including those in which he did not participate at all, for example, Anne’s son did a test and did not pass, Anne immediately thinks that she failed in her raising of her child, believes that she was wrong, because if she had done everything right, her son would have died.
- It consists in transforming the negative and inappropriate aspects in the center of our attention.
- According to patterns created by ourselves.
- And ignoring the rest of the information.
- Filtering the negative and forgetting the positive Example: Mary prepared a birthday cake for her and invited nine friends.
- Almost everyone loves Maria’s cake.
- With the exception of Laura.
- Who says chocolate syrup is not very tasty.
- Maria feels bad about it and starts to think the cake is horrible.
- He absorbed only the negative.
- Completely omitted the positives.
That’s the tendency we have to believe that if it happened once, it will happen once in two. For example: Peter broke up with Sonia after two and a half years of courtship. Peter soon thinks, “No one else will love me,” “I’ll never find someone who wants to be with me again. “
This cognitive distortion is about maximizing the mistakes and successes of others and minimizing the successes and mistakes of others. No matter how many shots you’ve had in the past, they’re no longer important. What matters now is that I made a big mistake. ?
It consists of an extreme assessment of the facts, without regard to the intermediate aspects. Classify things in black or white, true or false. For example: “If this work is not perfect, my effort will be worthless, it will be a disaster!”, or when a person can’t find a job and thinks” I’m completely useless!”.
This refers to the assumption that your emotions reflect things as they are. It’s believing that what you’re feeling right now is right and true. If a person feels irritated, it’s just because someone has done something to irritate them. incompetent, then I’m totally incompetent!? if I think so, therefore it must be true.
These are rigid and uncompromising beliefs about what we or others should be like. Self-centered claims promote self-criticism, while affirmations directed at others foster anger, anger, and aggression. Examples include 😕 I should have paid more attention to my husband, so he wouldn’t let me, shouldn’t I make mistakes?Should others be nice to me, okay? I need to love everyone.
In other words, certain assumptions are correct, even if there is no evidence to prove it. There are two ways:
Use pejorative labels to describe yourself, rather than describing your accomplishments and qualities with objectivity and precision. Am I useless?? instead of “I made a mistake, but I don’t always do that. “
Now that you know some of the distortions, understanding them, and learning how to handle them is the right thing to do.
Advancing!