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- [Instructor] Hey, Psych2Goers, welcome back
to another brand new video.
Have you ever wandered about thoughts?
Do you control your thoughts or are you controlled by them?
When do they become distortions?
If you compare your conscious mind to a film,
then your thoughts are the one second still of a frame.
Like films and any photographic medium,
thoughts are subject to manipulation.
When we consciously feed or engage with thoughts
in a certain way, they gain power.
This is what differentiates a thought
from a cognitive distortion.
Cognitive distortions are not thoughts.
There are ways of thinking we actively engage in.
Sometimes annoyingly.
Persistent cognitive distortions can worsen
or create mental health issues.
Fortunately, distorted thoughts are habits
and we can learn to change them
ultimately preventing these unhealthy habits
from promoting unhealthy thinking styles.
Here are five common habits that distort how you think.
One, over-generalization.
After a failed past relationship,
deleting dating apps or a skewing relationships altogether
is the standard course of action.
Overgeneralization is a cognitive distortion
where you might base all your information
on a single incident.
This kind of thinking is limiting and sets you up
for all distorted thinking and emotional pain.
It establishes self defeat before even going to battle.
Most times over generalizations are inaccurate.
Your mind is like a soundboard.
The ideas you play over in your head
eventually make up the melody.
If you find yourself overgeneralizing an action
or event, pause.
Consider doing a cost benefit analysis on the thought.
Is it worth thinking this way?
Ask yourself if there is relevant significant evidence
to back up this thought.
Two, labeling.
Labeling or mislabeling is an extreme form
of overgeneralizing.
An example of labeling would be when ignoring context,
someone might label another as a jerk
if they rubbed them the wrong way.
It's either globally self-directed
or directed towards others.
In reality, labeling is just another term for prejudice,
harboring ill thoughts about someone,
you or someone else without sufficient evidence
to support your thought.
Mislabeling typically involves highly colored
and emotional language.
Often you tend to label without context.
A first step to combating these kinds of disordered thoughts
is identifying them.
Three, blaming.
Do you constantly feel that in your life,
there are certain things just out of your control
or that bad things happen regardless of how careful you are?
However, this does not absolve you from taking control
of what you can control.
A common habit that distorts the way you think is blaming.
An example of Laming can look like this.
Stop making me feel bad about myself.
You may feel called out by someone's comment,
but like Eleanor Roosevelt said,
"no one can make you feel inferior without your consent."
Blaming involves holding other people
or situations accountable for your emotional pain.
In some cases, it can also go the other way,
blaming yourself for everything that happens
even when it is out of your control.
This thought habit encourages you to not take responsibility
or accountability for what happens to you.
Although there will be things in your life
that you cannot control, hold yourself accountable
for the things you can, your actions and emotions.
Four, magnification.
Do what ifs plague you into imagining the absolute worst
in every situation?
What if I do badly on this test?
Or what if I get tongue tied at the interview?
Magnification or catastrophizing
is when you negatively exaggerate the outcome.
You are in a state of anxiety
about the negative possibilities,
thus causing you to exaggerate the significance
of unimportant events, such as a social blander
or someone else's achievement.
Magnification is harmful because it keeps you frozen,
too scared to move forward.
The same can be said for magnifications cousin,
minimization.
An example of minimization is when you downplay
a personal achievement.
I did score high on the test, but I'm not that smart.
Five, emotional reasoning.
Have you ever thought back on a situation
and wish you had reacted differently?
It is easy to let emotions overwhelm your rational mind
and lead you to believe something
that is not necessarily true.
Emotional reasoning is taking our emotions to the extreme,
allowing our thoughts to be solely ruled by our emotions.
Some examples of emotional reasoning are, I feel guilty,
so I must be guilty of something,
or I feel inadequate, so I must be.
Engaging in emotional reasoning means you've assumed
that these unhealthy emotions reflect reality.
Mental health issues make emotional reasoning
one of the easiest distortions to fall into.
Emotions are like the weather, constantly changing.
If you are having a rainy day finding shelter in someone
who is supportive and willing to listen to you
can be a great help.
Getting out of an emotional reasoning distortion
might not be easy, but reaching out to a licensed therapist
can help make a difference.
Cognitive distortions can easily change your perspective,
by looking at the bright side,
you can easily change the distortion as well.
That is because cognitive distortions in essence are habits.
And the most effective way to get rid of a bad habit
is by replacing it with a healthier one.
When faced with distortion, it helps to first identify it,
examine the evidence it presents and challenge it.
You will find that most of these cognitive distortions
fade away when you look at them through a clearer lens.
When having trouble dismantling some of your thought habits,
seeking a therapist for help can help untangle the yarn ball
of your thoughts.
Did you find yourself nodding along at these points?
Leave a comment down below about your experiences with them
if you'd like.
Please feel free to share any thoughts you have as well.
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be sure to hit the like button
and share it with those out there
detangling their own yarn ball.
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