Cognitive Distortions: Understanding Unhelpful Thinking Patterns
One of the first steps in dealing with Anxiety is understanding and identifying our unhelpful thinking patterns.
Many of us, without realizing it, have automatic thoughts in response to both stressful and non-stressful situations that influence the way we react on an emotional, physical and behavioral level. Often, these thoughts are negative, and put us down an anxious path (or as I like to call it, a fuck-spiral).
Example: Let’s say I get an e-mail from my boss saying I need to prepare a presentation for my co-workers. The first thought I might have is, “Oh shit. I’m a terrible public speaker.” This is a negative thought, and likely will result in me feeling anxious, nervous, inadequate, insecure...you name it. Basically, really effing bad.
The good news is, there are tools for becoming aware of these thoughts as they come up, and tools for interrupting and challenging them to teach our brains that, in fact, these thoughts aren’t true.
Before we can change these thoughts, we have to learn how to identify and name them.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the most powerful therapies designed to tackle these negative thoughts. In CBT, our negative thinking is broken down into 12 major categories or themes.
While it’s possible to have thoughts that fall into any one of these categories, chances are your negative thinking patterns stick to only 2 or 3 of these types of thinking. For example, I tend to catastrophize (I broke my ankle—it’s the end of the world!), personalize (if someone is upset at a party I am hosting, it must be my fault), and think in all-or-nothing ways (I either write the perfect job application, or I don’t apply at all).
Take a look at this list and see if you can identify any of these thinking patterns as ones that you often have:
Once you become aware of these thinking patterns, you will start to notice them as they come up. This is the first step in challenging, and ultimately changing these negative thoughts.
I invite you to start by simply noticing these thoughts when they arise, and writing them down. Do this for a few days to start to develop a richer understanding of your unhelpful thinking patterns. Once you’ve figured out where your mind tends to go, it’s time to dive into challenging those thoughts baby!
Happy Coping!
XO -Rachel