Cognitive Distortions 1
"Nothing good EVER happens to me."
All or nothing thinking.
"I know that staff thinks I'm stupid."
Mind reading
When your mind decreases the importance of your desirable qualities and positive experiences.
Minimizing
Your child gets sick and you didn't notice until you dropped him off for school. It's my fault that he is sick and was sent home early.
Personalization
What has keys but can’t open locks?
Recognizing only the negative aspects of a situation while ignoring the positive.
Disqualifying the Positives
"I'm going to be in this program for a long time."
Fortune Telling
Exaggerating the importance of your struggles, problems, and shortcomings.
Magnification
"Someone stole something from me last year, so EVERYBODY is a thief!"
Overgeneralization
What gets wetter the more it dries?
A towel
The assumption that emotions reflect the way things really are.
Emotional Reasoning
"Things NEVER work out for me."
All or Nothing Thinking
"It's MY fault that my mom and stepdad broke up."
Personalization
"It's the staff's fault that I'm still on level freeze. I don't do anything to get in trouble."
Blaming/Labeling
What has to be broken before you can use it?
An egg
You see things in only two categories and think in absolute ways. If a situation falls short of perfect, you see it as a total failure.
All-or-Nothing thinking (black-or-white)
Seeing a single or few negative events as a never ending pattern of defeat, or making broad and negative interpretations from the event(s).
When one person shows they don't care about you, youth think "not a single person cares about me!"
Overgeneralization
"I freaked out because I was angry; therefore, it was justified!"
Emotional Reasoning
What comes down but never goes up?
Rain
Interpreting the meaning of a situation negatively with little to no evidence.
Jumping to Conclusions
I never do well on tests, even though I passed the class.
Mental Filtering
Minimizing
"Everyone SHOULD like me."
"Should" Statements
What can you hold in your left hand but not in your right?
Your right elbow