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Name that distorted cognition (thought/perception)

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ms spock

MyPTSD Pro
I have a lot of distorted cognitions (thoughts/perceptions) and I thought writing out our thinking and then naming those distorted cognitions could be fun and educational as well.

The 10 primary cognitive distortions are:
  1. All or nothing thinking -- You see things in black and white categories. If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as a total failure.
  2. Over-generalization -- You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.
  3. Mental filter -- You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it so exclusively that your vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that colors the entire beaker of water.
  4. Disqualifying the positive -- You reject positive experiences by insisting they "don't count" for some reason or other. In this way you can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday experiences.
  5. Jumping to conclusions -- You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion. (Involves mind-reading and fortune-telling.)
  6. Magnification and minimization -- You exaggerate the importance of things, or you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny.
  7. Emotional reasoning -- You assume that your emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are, as in "I feel it, therefore it must be true."
  8. Should statements -- You try to motivate yourself with "should" and "should not," as if you have to be whipped and punished before you could be expected to do anything.
  9. Labeling and mislabeling -- This is an extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing your error, you attach a negative label to yourself.
  10. Personalization -- You see yourself as the cause of some negative external event which, in fact, you were not primarily responsible for.
Add On:
No 11. Magical thinking is a distorted cognition as well. It is a big one for Developmental Trauma/Complex Trauma from childhood abuse. Well it is for me anyway.
 
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So my thought is

"If I don't do this essay perfectly I will die, everyone will think poorly of me and it will prove that I am worthless."

So I am in to No 2 overgeneralisation. I will not die if I don't do this essay perfectly. In fact very little will occur at all if I don't do the essay perfectly. I will have feelings about not doing the essay perfectly and feelings can't kill me. I am seeing a never ending pattern of defeat over my essays and writing in general. As I have been so dissociated, derealised and depersonalised all my life I haven't had defeat because I didn't even step up to the plate.

This is No 1 all or nothing thinking as well. I won't be perfect or not be perfect. I will just do it and it will be what it will be.

I have the distorted perception No 3 mental filter over my writing - that if it is not up to a certain standard that it will prove I am worthless. Well for one I don't need to prove I am worthwhile. That is illogical. I am worthwhile because I am worthwhile.

I am No 5 jumping to conclusions that everyone will think poorly of me. For one, "everyone" doesn't know me or my essay. The people I know are not so harsh and fickle that they would think poorly of me for making one mistake.

I am No 6 Magnification exaggerating the importance of this essay. Yes it is important that I finish it. But no it is not a life and death proposition.

I am doing No 7 emotional reasoning - just because I feel worthless doesn't make it so. Just because I feel something does not make it a fact.

I am at No 8 Should Statements. I should be perfect at essay writing - well I don't have to be punished or whipped to do something. That is a bit silly. I can do it because I love complex, complicated and challenging ideas.

I think I got all the ones for this particular distorted cognition. If anyone notices I haven't quite done it right please feel free to offer another way of deconstructing my distorted cognitions.
 
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Discount the positives: yep, lots.
My therapist would ask what I did to cope with some situation and I would say "nothing" or "I don't know." When I told him about what happened, he would point out the positive ways that I coped that were unique to me. I would discount those as not "textbook" coping skills so they didn't matter.
 
I assume too much and jump to false conclusions and it is so tricky to catch and correct this faulty thinking.

I mind read too, and this one is also tricky to catch myself at but I am working on it when I do.

I tend to horrablize at times and I have a really hard time catching myself at this.

I what if and should myself and still tend to be too hard on myself but there has been much improvement in that area.

Great idea of a thread Ms. Spock!
 
"If I don't do this essay perfectly I will die, everyone will think poorly of me and it will prove that I am worthless."
Actually, people tend to say nice things about the dead and might find it somehow heroic that you died in an attempt to write the perfect essay. (Not that I want you to die. I'd rather read the next essay!)

That is a great list and I should probably have several copies prominently displayed around the house. My personal favorites are probably 1,3,4,6, and especially 8. When things are going exceptionally bad, I've been known to go pretty far down the road with # 10 as well.
 
Great idea of a thread Ms. Spock!
I have been thinking about it for quite awhile @gizmo.

I thought it could be a good way for us to learn about cognitive distortions.

It can be fun as well.

It can also be a thread where someone can come and say "Is there anything wrong with this thinking?" and people can give assistance in thought correction.

I really struggle with cognitive distortions. So I am hoping I can learn more through interactions with other forum members.
 
"I don't have the energy to fight anymore, do to me what you will, I just don't care, it makes no difference." (Apathetic stance)

All or Nothing. Overgeneralizing - Assumes energy to fight is all or nothing, negates thinks like natural resilience, assumes pattern repeats only negatively thus negating the possibility of future positive outcomes.

Jumping to Conclusions - Defeat is a forgone conclusion and hope doesn't exist in the statement.

Emotional Reasoning - I feel tired makes the assumption that feeling tired means incapable and automatic defeat when this is not necessarily true.
 
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