The Ten Basic thinking errors
As conceived by Dr. David Burns
1. All or Nothing Thinking: Here, you look at things in black-and-white ways. Situations and people are perceived in absolute terms. Common phrases are, “I’m a total loser,” “Nothing is going right,” “All hope is lost,” “I’ll never get what I want.”
2. Overgeneralization: You view a single negative event as part of an ongoing pattern of defeat. You might say or think things like, “This (bad event) just proves how bad my life is.”
3. Mental Filter: When using this kind of distorted thinking, you dwell on the negative and ignore the positives. You may know that you have 20 good things happening, but the one defeat is all you focus on.
4. Discounting the Positive: You insist that your positive qualities or accomplishments don’t count. For instance, when someone pays you a compliment about your appearance and you downplay it or make excuses.
5. Jumping to Conclusions: You assume the worst, even if there is no evidence to support your assumption. There are two types of jumping to conclusions:
a. Mind-Reading: You believe people are reacting negatively to you.
b. Fortune-telling: You believe situations will end badly.
6. Magnification or Minimization: Magnification, or catastrophizing, happens when you blow things out of proportion. You might tell yourself things like, “This is the worst thing that could happen!” On the other hand, minimization happens when you minimize the importance of things. For example, “It was just an A on the test; someone else still did better than me.”
7. Emotional Reasoning: You believe your feelings are reality. For instance, “I feel like an idiot” so you tell yourself you really are one.
8. Should statements: These critical statements are used against ourselves and others to tell us we should, must, ought-to and have-to do certain things.
9. Labeling: You label yourself or others with an unflattering name out of anger or frustration. We label ourselves or others “jerks,” “losers,” “idiots,” and so forth.
10. Blame: Here you blame yourself for something that wasn’t entirely your fault, or you blame others and overlook your contribution to the problem
3 comments:
How do you rid yourself of this kind of thinking?
Unknown, I thinkg you start by mindfully noticing the thinking errors and observing them without judgement. Once you can observe them, there are a variety of tools you can use to counteract them. For example:
-Check your facts. Looking at your life- at reality, is the thinking correct?
- Be mindful of the present moment. Practice mindfulness exercises to be in the moment and out of your head. This can be as simple as observing your breath.
-Combat thinking errors with cheer leading statements and affirmations.
-Learn about your different mind states according to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
-Your emotional mind is where thinking errors originate: "No one likes me. The world is against me. Nothing ever goes my way. I'll never be any good."
-Your rational or reasonable mind looks at the facts: Do you have people who look to you for guidance? Who depends on you? What are people's reactions to you? Is it even possible for the whole world to hate you?
The third state of mind is the most desirable- the wise mind.
-Wise mind is the integration of both the emotional and reasonable minds. It feels right and you know at your core level that it is right. In addition, it is right today and it will still be right tomorrow. Wise mind has your gut feeling, intuition at its center.
Once you understand the mind states you can assess the validity of the statements.
Once you understand the mind states, plug those thinking errors into that framework and see where they fall. Are they emotional mind, reasonable mind or wise mind? Once you have the answer and can observe, you have the knowledge and power to change your behavior.
- Reduce vulnerability: make sure you are taking care of yourself. Illness, sleep disturbances, pain all make you more vulnerable to emotional mind and thinking errors.
There are many more skills that you can learn to help rid yourself of thinking errors, negative self-talk and painful emotions.The first step is observing/noticing they are happening (without judging yourself or others) and then letting yourself be with them (without fighting reality) and let go of them.
There are techniques for this when you are ready to commit to letting go of the suffering in your life.
I recommend the website: www.dbtselfhelp.com
There's a lot of information and hands on tools that I think might really help. I'm sure Jade will have more to add.
I could point to most of the thinking errors on the list and say,"Yes, that's me". The first step is becoming aware of your thinking errors. The second and more difficult step is starting to change them. Be aware that even change for the good can be extremely uncomfortable and painful. 'Better the devil you know than the one you don't' keeps many of us from progressing. Eventually you reach a point where the pain of changing becomes preferable to the pain of remaining how you are and in the thinking states that you are used to being in. That is when change occurs. That is when freedom from misery becomes a real possibility. That is when hope is reborn, and faith in yourself becomes a truth instead of a wish. I have a ways to go, but at least I am moving forward.
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