5 Unhelpful Thinking Styles

Written by: Francisca

"I am never going to be happy"...
"She is always making me feel bad"...
"This shows what a horrible person I am"...

These statements are what we often hear or even tell ourselves during times of trouble, unhappiness or confusion. In psychology, these statements are known as cognitive distortions which cause us to see a false and inaccurate reality. These irrational beliefs give us a negative outlook on reality and should be brought to our awareness as soon as possible. Identifying when we have these distortions are the first step in correcting our inaccurate thinking and allow us to have more positive thinking patterns! Here are 5 such cognitive distortions that may control your life:

1. Overgenralising:
This thinking pattern makes you perceive a single negative event as a never-ending loop of defeat. One example would be when a man gets retrenched from a company. He then feels that he can never do anything right and he is a complete failure.

2. Blaming:
Holding others accountable for your emotional pain is 'blaming'. However, blaming yourself for every problem outside of your control is also part of this distorted thinking pattern. Example, not taking personal responsibility for one's mistakes and placing the fault on others.

3. Personalisation:
This distortion occurs when a person believes that what people say or do is to hurt him/her, even when it is not meant in that way. Similarly, this also occurs if the person feels that his/her actions are accountable for an external unrelated event they were not responsible for. For example, saying that the meeting was horrible for everyone because he bought the wrong kind of coffee for himself.

4. Black and White Thinking
There are no grey areas in thinking. Things are either very good or very bad, there is no in-between. This polarised thinking is when you see things only in extremes. One example would be labelling a person either good or bad, and not seeing that there may be some good in the person.

5. Emotional reasoning
This thinking pattern occurs when emotions outweigh logical thinking. One example would be feeling unmotivated, so you decide that you will completely give up on a project. Or, when you feel guilty and automatically think you are the worst person in the world.

There are many of such cognitive distortions that exist. You may not be aware of its presence, or if you have been rehearsing them unknowingly. This post hopes to bring into light the existence of such negative thinking patterns and hopefully allowed you to gain a little insight into your thought process. Learn to challenge these automatic thoughts and slowly, you'll find yourself having a more positive outlook on life!