Understanding the 10 big distortions in your thinking can bring relief to anxiety.

Is there a voice in your head that drives your anxiety?

When you understand what sort of distortions in your thinking is occurring it can help.  This 10 labels come from the discipline of cogntitive behavioural therapy.

If the voice says eg. “I’m a bad person”, this is all or nothing thinking also known as black and white thinking.

Or if the voice says, for example “I can’t do anything right” - this is overgeneralisation, so exaggerating.

That inner voice might say “I didn’t accomplish anything today” - this is called Mental Filter where you filter out the good stuff and focus on the bad.

What about this one? “I suppose I survived the day - even broken clocks are right twice a day”. This is where you don’t believe something positive ‘counts’. This is called Disquaifiying the Positive.

Another one here is “They didn’t employ me - I must be useless. This one is Jumping to Conclusions and is when you create a larger negative thought from a small negative experience.

What about magnification or minimisation? This is where you exaggerate a friends' success and play down yours. For example. “Everyone saw me mess up, whilst Sally performed really well.

Emotional Reasoning - When you think your negative feelings are truth. For example “I was embarrassed - so I must be embarrassing”.

Should statements - when you beat yourself up because you did something or didn’t do it ie. saying “I should have not said anything to anyone”.

Labeling and Mislabelling - “I forgot to send the email - I’m a total idiot”. This is when you give yourself a huge general label for a small event.

Personalisation - this is where you make things personal when they aren’t. For example, the party was rubbish, because I was there.

When you understand these big distortions in your thinking it can help you to realise the mistake in your thinking. Thinking any of these examples are certainly going to make you feel bad. When you recognise your thinking is 'off' you can catch yourself and change your thinking.

Have you recognised any of these big distortions in your own thinking or maybe of someone else?

I find this list useful in reminding me when my thinking has switched to distorting. When I recognise what’s going on, it can bring me back to healthier and happier thinking.

If you are struggling with your thinking DM me and let’s have a chat.

Disclaimer: I'm not a medical health professional, I have had personal struggles with anxiety and have studied and researched and trained extensively to help myself. I now help women through my healing and coaching programme, but also recommend women take responsibility for their health and consult a trusted medical professional/GP as required. My work never replaces medical intervention, but it can compliment it.