Thoughts/Distortions 1
Statement of fact based on evidence you gathered with your own senses from the environment
Observation or description
You view a negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat or believe that one threat or responsibility applies to more situations than just the one
Overgeneralizing
To declare or indicate in advance of a situation, often based on observation, experience, or scientific reason. These can also be faulty and not based on facts.
Predictions
A form of “jumping to conclusions”: You assume that people are reacting negatively to you where there’s little-to-no clear evidence for this.
Mind-reading
What is thought challenging? Provide an example of ways to challenge this thought:
"Because I have a bad feeling when I go in this room, it is not safe for me to go in the room."
Examples may vary!
Looking at things in absolute, black-and-white categories
All-or-nothing thinking
A thought or suggestion as to a possible course of action; also, an opinion or belief.
Idea
You insist that your accomplishments or positive qualities “don’t count” or “aren’t that big of a deal”.
Discounting the positives
Thoughts about yourself that are judgmental, doubting, belittling, and telling you that you are not good enough. These thoughts are negative, hurtful things about you—things that you likely would never even dream of saying to someone else.
Bonus: what emotion are we likely experiencing if we are engaging in negative self-talk?
Negative self-talk
Bonus answer: Shame (+50)
Cognitive defusion refers to when we are FUSED to a thought (stuck in it; being controlled by it; buying into it without looking for evidence or evaluating whether it is helpful; or forcefully trying to deny or push it away)
What are ways to create space between you and a thought so you can observe the thought without becoming fused to it?
Mindfulness of Current Thoughts: using defusion phrases such as "I am having the thought that.." and identifying what kind of thought or distortion you are having
Helpful reminders that a thought is just a thought, not a command or a fact - all human beings have tens of thousands of thoughts a day, many of which are irrational or bear no important meaning even if they elicit an emotion
Use visualization to imagine allowing thoughts to be present and pass on their own, seeing them as natural brain impulses without reinforcing them or rejecting them - can be helpful to utilize a meditation like Leaves on a Stream or use visuals in MOCT packet
Play with thoughts - imagine the thought being reported to you by an unreliable source or someone you wouldn't trust or talk to; maybe a child who doesn't know better. Manipulate scary "story" thoughts into having different possible endings. Repeat thoughts to yourself in a silly voice or sing the thoughts until they begin to lose meaning and seem ridiculous.
An unwelcome or involuntary thought, image or unpleasant idea that may become an obsession, can feel difficult to manage or eliminate
You exaggerate the probability that a negative outcome will occur, or you exaggerate the seriousness of any negative consequences; this counts for our emotions too, like shame or anxiety
Magnifying (catastrophizing)
You believe that because you think about harmful consequences, you are responsible for preventing harm from coming to yourself or others. Failure to prevent (or failure to try to prevent) harm is the same thing as causing harm.
Overestimation of responsibility
A form of "jumping to conclusions:" you predict that things will turn out badly arbitrarily or without reason or evidence.
Fortune-telling
If we are in higher distress, we will experience cognitive dysregulation along with emotional dysregulation. What are other skills for distress tolerance or emotion regulation that we can use to bring down the intensity of emotion so we can work with thoughts more rationally?
TIPP Skills: temperature, intense exercise, paced breathing, PMR
Body scan/grounding skills
Self-soothe
Distract (time-limited!)
Opposite action/BA
Check the Facts
Criticizing yourself or others with "should" statements because you have a want or expectation of how things "should" or "should not" be,
"Should-ing"
If you find yourself using a lot of "shoulds.."
-Practice the skill of radical acceptance for problems you cannot solve.
-Identify whether your "shoulds" are actually decreasing your suffering or solving any problems. I can spend time thinking about how I should be making a million dollars a year and how everyone should be nice to me. Those thoughts won't cause those things to happen. They'll just increase my dysregulation!
- Ask yourself - what can I control, and what do I not control?
- Try changing the statement to reflect your emotional experience. Instead of saying "my mom should never take my phone away," you could notice that "when my mom takes my phone away, it brings up a lot of ____ for me" (anger, anxiety, lonelines
You draw conclusions based on how you feel; you assume that danger is present based on the fact that you are feeling anxious; "I feel like an idiot, so I must be one"
Emotional reasoning
You blame yourself for something you were not entirely responsible for or blame others entirely without looking at how you contributed.
Personalization and Blame
You identify with shortcomings: "I made a mistake" turns into "I'm an idiot" or "I was not gentle with that person" becomes "I'm a jerk."
Labeling (judgments)
What does it mean to accumulate evidence against a thought? When is a time that you've done this?
Answers may vary
An opinion or evaluation often achieved by comparing things, people, or situations
Judgment
You feel as if you must have a 100 percent guarantee of safety or absolute certainty. Any doubt or possibility of negative outcome (however small) is unacceptable.
Intolerance of uncertainty
"If I think something, it means I will do it/cause something to happen."
Thought/action fusion
There is also moral thought/action fusion, meaning that we believe thinking about doing something "bad" is the same as actually doing it.
Minimizing
Instead of countering negative self-talk with "false positives," what are some "neutrality" statements we can use that are believable and more factual than our negative statements?
Answers may vary