Name that distorted cognition (thought/perception)

[Ronin]

I'm at awful lot of all or nothing. And mental filter.

Put a line of 'What part of the problems at hand do they solve' over it, because they feel as a good style of thinking, and they aren't, and I can't afford to have it spill into more areas of my life.

 

[ms spock]

Put a line of 'What part of the problems at hand do they solve' over it, because they feel as a good style of thinking, and they aren't, and I can't afford to have it spill into more areas of my life.

I am not certain what you mean by this @Cashew?

 

[Ronin]

@Ms Spock: Problem solving while under pressure. Awareness I'm thinking in cognitive distortions, re-labeling them so they have less power & they're not what I decide on, when I can't fix the thinking itself at the moment to the depth I'd like.

 

[ms spock]

Oh that sounds productive @Cashew.

If you ever want to write down the process of doing that I would be interested in reading it.

 

[ms spock]

I have been handling my cognitive distortions quite well today.

One of the things I do is a lot of avoidance to avoid pain, but I have been getting myself to do things in this now today.

I also came up with this for myself, but someone might find it interesting.

So before eating and before dissociation the question to ask is: What emotional need do I need to meet in myself right now? What responsibility do I need to meet for myself right now? How can I do something even for a minute or five minutes that honours what is going on inside of myself right now? What cognitive distortion am I operating in right now? If I write down all ten distorted cognitions can I work it out?

 

[ms spock]

All the work in this area really paid off yesterday. I was able to dispute my own distorted cognitions, again and again. It is progress, and I am happy with some progress.

 

[ms spock]

I have a cognitive distortion/s around dissociation. I need to work at it, and unpack it.

 

[ms spock]

I am disputing my thoughts more. i have a whole lot of all or nothing thinking going on.

 

[Ronin]

A lot of minimization today. Some primary coping mechanisms just work so well.

 

[ms spock]

Now I have been doing a tiny bit of self compassion I can see that I have been practicing meanness to myself and being terribly judgmental and punishing towards myself.

I am really stuck in Personalization I see AND FEEL myself as the cause of the negative external events which, in fact, I, as a child were not primarily responsible for at all. I was just unlucky enough to be born in to that family. But I feel that this is the "truth" though there is no basis for it in reality. Feelings aren't facts but I am certainly acting as if they are facts.

I have a lot of automatic All or nothing thinking -- I see things in black and white categories. If my performance falls short of perfect, I see myself as a total failure. To add to that I am also doing a lot of Labeling and mislabeling I am doing the extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing my errors, I am attaching a negative labels to myself. I feel I am a bad person. I feel that I am so bad and wrong.

I am engaging in Emotional reasoning I am assuming that my emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are, as in "I feel it, therefore it must be true." I get stuck in this one an awful lot at times.

I do a lot of Magnification and minimization I exaggerate the importance of things, and I inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny. I might do this to stop myself feeling my feelings? I am not sure. But I do it a bit as well.

I do a lot of Disqualifying the positive I reject positive experiences by insisting they "don't count" for some reason or other. In this way I can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by my everyday experiences. I just keep beating myself up for not being good enough. That is a deep belief which will take a bit of working on. A good friend to this one is Mental filter I pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it so exclusively that my vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that colors the entire beaker of water. I did this last night. And I don't know what really happened, but at least if I keep on trying to break the thoughts down I will get there in the end.

Over-generalization I see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat. Though I do have a few patterns of never ending defeat in some ways - with the severe avoidance and highly practiced dissociation - they started to protect myself - but I do view things as never ending defeats at times. I have lashed out at people and pushed them away over and over again especially when things trigger me. That does feel like a never ending pattern of defeat but the reality is also that I am maintaining a relationship and friendships.

 

[ms spock]

I have discovered another level of distorted thoughts, feelings and perceptions - and gosh I am hammering myself every day with so much negative, self abusive, self attacking and self doubting thinking, feeling and perceiving. It really is a wonder that I do anything with how harsh my thinking is towards myself. Egads!

Awareness is the start of change though and that is important.

 

[ms spock]

***winks @Lizio***