15 Styles of Distorted Thinking

[A.J. Mahari]

 

1. Filtering: You take the negative details and magnify them, while filtering out all positive aspects of the situation.

2. Polarized Thinking: Things are black and white, good or bad. You have to be perfect or you are a failure. There is no middle ground.

3. Overgeneralization: You come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or other piece of evidence. If something bad happens once, you expect it to happen over and over again.

4. Mind Reading: Without their saying so, you know what people are feeling and why they act the way they do. In particular, you are able to divine what people are feeling about you.

5. Catastrophizing: You expect disaster. You notice or hear about a problem and start "what-ifs". What if a tragedy strikes? What if it happens to you?

6. Personalization: Thinking that everything people do or say is directed towards you or is some kind of reaction to you. You also compare yourself to others, trying to determine who's smarter, better looking, etc.

7. Control Fallacies: If you feel externally controlled, you see yourself as helpless, a victim of fate. The fallacy of internal control has you responsible for the pain and happiness of everyone around you.

8. Fallacy of Fairness: You feel resentful because you think you know what's fair but other people won't agree with you.

9. Blaming: You hold other people responsible for your pain o rtake the other tack and blame yourself for every problem or reversal.

10. Should's: You have a list of iron-clad rules about how you or other people SHOULD act. People who break the rules anger you and you feel guilty if you violate the rules.

11. Emotional Reasoning: You believe what you feel must be true. If you feel stupid and boring, you must be.

12. Fallacy of Change: You expect other people will change to suit you if you just pressure or cajole them enough. Y ou need to change people because your hopes for happiness seem so entirely dependant on them.

13. Global Labelling: You generalize one or two qualities into a negative global judgment.

14. Being Right: You are continually on trial to prove that your opinions and actions are correct. Being wrong is unthinkable and you will go to any lengths to demonstate your rightness.

15. Heaven's Reward Fallacy: You expect all of your sacrifice and self-denial to pay off as if someone was keeping score. You feel bitter when the reward doesn't come.