Cognitive Distortions: How to Identify Unhealthy Thinking

What are cognitive distortions?

Everyone uses cognitive distortions at some time while trying to make sense of life events. Cognitive distortions are known by other names such as faulty thinking, mistaken beliefs, core beliefs, and thinking errors. Cognitive distortions are a person’s misinterpreted perceptions that support their personal belief system about themselves, others, and the world around them.

In Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), a personal belief system is a deep-lying acceptance of ideas that are usually rooted in a variety of experiences. Some of these beliefs are rooted in early childhood experiences and family dynamics. Other beliefs are constructed from environmental interactions, such as cultural and social messages a person receives.

Additional personal beliefs can develop during traumatic or significant life events. A personal belief system can become distorted subconsciously over time as a person tries to maneuver life circumstances and protect themselves from potential threats.

Eventually, inaccurate thought patterns can become so entrenched that a person doesn’t even recognize them as beliefs but just assumes they are reality. When these inaccurate thought patterns (cognitive distortions) become your perception of yourself, others, and the world around you, they become unproductive and begin affecting your life in negative ways.

From Protective to Unproductive: How Cognitive Distortions Develop

Several researchers have studied how the brain forms thoughts and memories. In 1932, Sir Frederick Bartlett published his work on remembering. Bartlett’s theory explains that when drawing on a memory to help you navigate a situation, your brain relies on memory fragments, rather than a film-like narrative.

The fragments are then organized and reconstructed based on your own personal experiences and belief systems, which make up what Bartlett called “schemas.” Current researchers, such as Bessel van der Kolk and Rita Fisler (1995) focused on how traumatic memories are stored.

According to van der Kolk, traumatic memories are disorganized and are stored as sensory fragments such as physical sensations, sights, sounds, and smells. When memories involve traumatic events and are then accessed, reconstructed, and reinterpreted using these disorganized sensory fragments, one can begin to understand how distortions can develop.

God designed our brains to function in a protective way by gathering input from past and present to help navigate things such as surviving physical and emotional threats, to seek out companionship and pleasure, and to increase our competency to feel good about ourselves and bring purpose to our lives.

Even though everyone’s brain functions in a fairly similar way, each person is a unique creation with varying experiences that make up their memories and perceptions that develop a framework of thoughts. As seen in the mentioned research, previous pieces of information are being accessed, new information is being added, and we reinterpret what is happening. It is during this reinterpretation that things can go wrong.

Over time, memories evolve, and by nature we try to fill in missing pieces or change things that don’t make sense. Reinterpretation can be affected by numerous things such as social pressure, emotional state, expectations, stress, and age and health of an individual, to name a few.

Even though our brains function to protect us and help us succeed and be productive, sometimes thinking patterns no longer serve their original purpose or have evolved to extremes that they become maladaptive, leading to problems in numerous areas of life. These unproductive belief systems become cognitive distortions that are no longer protective in nature but affect a person’s quality of life.

Because cognitive distortions can become so ingrained in a person’s daily way of functioning, professional help from a licensed counselor is needed. Choosing a counselor who is patient and understands how these distorted cognitions are developed and maintained can bring lasting changes to the quality of your relationships and your life overall.

How can cognitive distortions affect daily life?

With so many people with different thoughts and experiences, how do we function as a society? Having different perspectives has led to scientific breakthroughs in technology, cures for disease, and an understanding of how the universe functions. By far, different perspectives have led to some of the greatest achievements in history.

However, different perspectives have also encouraged such worldly ills as greed, prejudice, murder, and war. As perceptions change over time, they can lead to cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions lead a person to have a narrower worldview by causing them to filter out evidence around them that does not fit their mental framework.

Cognitive distortions can also lead to such problems as low self-esteem and relationship issues. Incorporating cognitive distortions into your mental framework feeds issues such as anxiety and depression, while also causing difficulties in problem-solving and productive communication. Overall, cognitive distortions cause barriers to achieving one’s goals, thus lowering a person’s quality of life.

Types of Cognitive Distortions

You may ask, how can someone change these distortions if they don’t recognize that they are using them? A good start is to examine the following list of the most common cognitive distortions and evaluate whether you use any of these in your daily thinking.

If you identify one (or several) that you use, identify which areas of your life you see yourself using them and determine whether maintaining the distortion in your mental framework is helping or causing difficulties in meeting your goals.

Some common thinking errors are the following:

Polarized Thinking: Thinking of things in absolutes (black or white, good or bad, perfect or failure) with no middle ground

Overgeneralization: Coming to a general conclusion based on one small incident or bit of evidence

Catastrophizing: Finding the negative aspects in every situation and expecting disaster

Emotional Reasoning: Believing that what you feel must be true (I feel stupid, so I must be stupid).

Being Right: You are continually trying to prove that your opinions and actions are correct (often becoming defensive when challenged)

All-or-Nothing Thinking: Using words such as “always”, “never”, “forever” when describing self, others, or situations (similar to Polarized Thinking)

Global Reasoning: Making judgements or maintaining a rigid set of beliefs about people groups, places, or situations regardless of evidence disproving your beliefs

Comparing: Measuring yourself compared to others, trying to see who is smarter, better looking or more successful, or by pointing out others’ mistakes to justify your own behavior

Entitlement: Thinking you deserve special treatment compared to others around you

Victim Stance: Claiming helplessness to get others to do things so that you can avoid the discomfort of doing things yourself

Live and Let Live: Being so positive that you avoid facing the pain you have experienced or the pain you have caused others.

Predicting the Future: Imagining outcomes to situations that have not happened yet (related to excessive worry)

Heaven’s Reward Fallacy: You expect that your sacrifice and self-denial will pay off in the end, as if someone is keeping a record of the accounts. You then find yourself bitter when the reward doesn’t come.

Fallacy of Change: You expect other people to change to suit you if you pressure them enough

Emotional Reasoning: You believe that what you feel must be true. Emotions can sometimes get in the way of clear thinking.

Blaming: You hold other people responsible for your pain, or conversely, you blame yourself for every problem

Shoulds: You have specific rules about how you and other people should act. When other people do not follow these rules, you get angry. If you don’t follow the rules, then you feel guilty (related to perfectionism)

Mind Reading: You believe that you know what other people are thinking and feeling without them saying so (Often this is believing people think negatively about you)

How can I learn to change cognitive distortions?

Did you identify any of these patterns in your thinking? Which ones do you use the most? Again, remember that everyone uses cognitive distortions at some point or another. The key is to understand how the use of these distortions may negatively impact your life.

Cognitive distortions often become a habitual way of thinking, so it takes time and work to identify and change these patterns that feed into negative ways of functioning. The best first step is to identify one or two distortions that you use the most. Examine in what situations you are using these cognitive distortions.

Throughout the day, try catching yourself when you use them. Once you get into the habit of identifying when you are using a cognitive distortion, try to back up and evaluate objectively what your thoughts and emotions were during that time.

Marsha Linehan, the creator of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), uses exercises that promote non-judgmental thinking. Looking at a situation without judgment takes practice, but acquiring this skill can help decrease thinking errors and can help regulate emotions that seem out of control. Another way of trying to change the way you think is to practice “perspective-taking.”

To do this, you brainstorm alternative ways of understanding a situation. When perspective-taking with people, you try to view things the way they might see them. This can be a challenge as we never really know what others are thinking unless they tell us. However, practicing perspective-taking with others can help increase empathy and patience in yourself.

Habits can be difficult to break and being able to view ourselves objectively while evaluating our own thinking can seem impossible. Texas Christian Counseling can help match you with a Christian counselor who understands your unique design in God’s image, while also helping to support you in identifying and changing cognitive distortions that are negatively impacting your quality of life.

Working with a professional counselor can help you improve communication and the quality of your relationships while also learning healthy coping skills through modalities such as DBT and CBT. Examining your cognitive distortions with DBT or CBT techniques can help improve symptoms related to trauma, anxiety, grief, and depression (to name a few).

And remember that God wants the best for you. Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) says, “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.” It is time you started living the life that God intended for you.