Thinking Errors - How Thoughts Can Be Unhelpful
Thinking Errors - How Thoughts Can Be Unhelpful
Dausha Chriss, MSW Intern
Whenever we have an experience, we automatically receive a thought about that experience. It is important to recognize that sometimes those thoughts are inaccurate, irrational, or negative (Morin, 2015). In other words, our thoughts are not always pure truth. These types of thoughts are considered thinking errors (Clark, 2020), and we all have them at some point in our lives, including teenagers, adults, and seniors. If these thinking errors become a consistent way of viewing yourself and others, then it can impact relationships, cause communication concerns and affect personal goals and choices (Morin, 2015).
But what are these thinking errors in the first place? Here is a list of common thinking errors (Beck, n.d.):
Magnification or Minimization - exaggerating or minimizing the importance of events, including achievements or mistakes.
Overgeneralization - Interpreting or coming to a conclusion that something is “always” or “never” something based off an event.
Magical Thinking - That certain behaviors or actions will lead to situations that are not related, such as bad things should not happen to good people.
Personalization - Taking responsibility or blaming yourself for things outside of your control.
Jumping to Conclusions - This can include interpreting thoughts and beliefs of others without any evidence, or expecting how something will turn out in the future without evidence.
Emotional Reasoning - Believing that emotions mean that is how things actually are.
Disqualifying the Positive - Only focusing on the negative details of a situation or self and ignoring all positive aspects of the situation or self.
Should Statements - believing that something should be a certain way or that you should be able to do certain things.
All or Nothing Thinking - Looking at things in only absolutes, for example, black and white thinking.
Sometimes people are only affected by one of these thinking errors, or sometimes people are affected by a variety of them. The first step to making change is to recognize the thought for what it is. That can be very impactful to be able to catch yourself in the pattern you have been experiencing for a while. Once you recognize it, then you can start to explore and ask if there is any evidence that the thought is true (Morin, 2015). If not, then we can replace it with a different thought that is more realistic (Morin, 2015). This is a practice that can take time to become comfortable with, but the ability to not have your thoughts control your life can be very freeing. Therapy can be a great source of support with each of these steps to make change.
References
Beck. (n.d.). Cognitive distortions (worksheet). Therapist Aid. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.therapistaid.com/therapy-worksheet/cognitive-distortions
Clark, R. (2020, September 17). Thinking errors – we all have them, but how are we managing them? The Center for Relationship Health. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://crsh.com/2020/09/17/thinking-errors-we-all-have-them-but-how-are-we-managing-them/
Morin, A. (2015, January 24). 10 thinking errors that will crush your mental strength. Psychology Today. Retrieved July 7, 2022, from https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/what-mentally-strong-people-dont-do/201501/10-thinking-errors-will-crush-your-mental-strength
