I know, i know - everyone on the forum is just delighted i read the david burns books "feeling good"

[ms spock]

I know, I know - everyone on the forum is just DELIGHTED I read that David Burns books "Feeling Good" but it changed my life! ;) I share my new found knowledge on distorted cognitions with all and sundry!

No one told me about distorted cognitions - I could have had a life if I had known about them! I had no idea how profoundly depressed I was - I really thought it was me, I didn't know that depressed people thought/feel/perceive like I did.

So I seriously don't any one to miss out on learning about the top ten distorted cognitions and David Burns' book.

 

[ms spock]

So this could be of interest to some Members:

https://www.myptsd.com/threads/are-you-familiar-with-the-top-ten-distorted-cognitions.57711/

And I was surprised that this thread didn't take off - but one day it will I am sure! ;)

https://www.myptsd.com/threads/name-that-distorted-cognition-thought-perception.54277/

and to make it easy to see the top ten distorted cognitions:

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.

 

[Zef]

thought I would give you some attention. :)

Just wanted to agree that the list of distorted cognitions is a pretty powerful tool. . .and not just for us, for everyone with a human brain. :)

How many of our abusers may not have abused us if they had been aware of their own distortions? How many organizations would be healthier if they analyzed the distortions of their group or belief system?

One more thing to add to my ever longer list of things that should be taught in high school. :)

 

[ms spock]

How many organizations would be healthier if they analyzed the distortions of their group or belief system?

The world would be a very different place, that is for certain. I just read a brilliant book about that and I will find the author and title of it for you @Zef.

One more thing to add to my ever longer list of things that should be taught in high school. :)

Indeed!

 

[ms spock]

@Zef The book is called "The Power of the Habit Why We Do What We Do and How To Change" by Charles Duhigg. You hit on the head what part of the book is about and that is finding out what is the thinking in an organisation and then how to interact with it. Very interesting stuff. I think you might find it interesting, though I suspect you know a lot of what is in the book anyway.

 

[ms spock]

@SophiaWisdom here is another thread of on distorted cognitions so you get an idea of the David Burns book across the forum.

 

[SophiaWisdom]

Yay!

@SophiaWisdom here is another thread of on distorted cognitions so you get an idea o...

I started working with the Thoughts section of the pacifica app based on CBT and it's been so helpful to see ho w cruel I am to myself in my head! They deal with exactly these distorted cognitions you mention - they are so rampant!!

 

[ms spock]

I am about to do the original book again, and the workbook for the first time. I didn't even realise that there was a workbook. Now I have a loan of a copy.