These are examples of emotional thinking errors that Cognitive Therapy can help you change:
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.
Over-generalization: You see a
single negative event as a never-ending pattern.
Mental Filter:You pick out a
single negative detail or situation and dwell on it exclusively, so that your
vision of all reality becomes darkened, like the drop of ink that discolors
the entire beaker of water or darkened sunglasses that darken your perception
of the world you are viewing.
Disqualifying The Positive:
You reject positive information or experiences by insisting they "don't count"
for some reason or another. In this way, you can maintain a negative belief
that is contradicted by evidence from your everyday experiences.
Jumping To The Conclusions:
You make a negative interpretation even though there are no definite facts
that convincingly support your conclusions.
a) Mind
Reading: You arbitrarily conclude that someone is reacting
negatively to you, and you don't bother to check this assumption out.
b) Predicting The Future: You anticipate that things will
turn out badly and are sure your prediction of doom will happen.
Catastrophizing Or Minimizing:
You inappropriately exaggerate the importance or possible harm in a situation
or event. Or you may inappropriately shrink things until they become tiny or
of no importance.
Emotional Reasoning: You
assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really
are: "I feel it, therefore, it must be true."
Shoulding:
You try to motivate yourself with shoulds and should nots, Musts and
Ought and Why are also offenders in this category. Shoulds represent
unrealistically high expectations and demands. When you direct shoulds outwardly,
you will experience emotions of anger, frustration, and resentment with
people and life. When you direct it inwardly you produce guilt.
Labeling: This is an extreme
form of over-generalization. An inaccurate and emotional label is used instead
of an accurate assessment of the error or situation; for example, "I'm a total
loser", "He is a lazy bum", "Drivers are all idiots".
Personalization: You see
yourself as the cause of some negative external event or someone's reaction
for which, in fact, you were not necessarily a consideration or an important
factor.
