today i'm going to be talking about a cognitive distortion called filtering
which may be something that you're doing all the time without even being aware that you're doing it
hi everyone in today's video we're going to continue our video series on cognitive distortions
or biased ways of thinking that can contribute to depression and anxiety this video is going
to be focusing on something we call filtering which relates to how we process information
in the world around us but before i get into that just a couple of disclaimers to go over
i'm a registered psychologist in the province of british columbia canada and this video is for
informational purposes only it is not intended as a substitute or replacement for advice from your
doctor or mental health professional now with those things out of the way let's start talking
about filtering now filtering is something we do all the time every day all the time we're
constantly bombarding with we're constantly being bombarded with all kinds of information
information that's coming to us through our senses we we can't possibly pay attention
to all of it and so what we end up doing is we screen out a lot of that information and
and only pay attention to a little bit of the information that we're getting that seems
important so for example right now you're probably listening to my voice and watching this video
you're paying attention to the information that seems most relevant or important to you
now what you're probably not paying attention to is the light in the background or
the picture of the rainbow or the feeling of your feet on the floor
but now that i've pointed out some of those things you probably notice them more and are far more
aware of them they were always there you just weren't paying attention to them because
they didn't seem relevant but now that i've pointed them out there's some increased
relevance and so you actually notice them and recognize these things that a few moments ago
you weren't paying any attention to we're filtering information all the time
and this is a normal part of life so it's not necessarily a bad thing it's something we do all
the time which makes us a bit more efficient to allow us to focus on what's important
but in depression what can happen is that with filtering you start to pay attention
only to the negative things in life and you filter out any of the neutral or the positive things so
when you think about your relationship all you think about is the disagreements and the arguments
with your partner when you think about your performance at work
all you think about is the missed deadlines and the mistakes that you've made so what can end up
happening is that as you filter out this positive and neutral information in your life
all you're left with is the negative stuff and all you can focus on and think about are
the negative things in your life so what do you think that does to a person's mood well
this can result in depression getting worse understandably it makes sense it can also lead to
poor self-esteem unhealthy pessimism these are all things that can result
in even more negative filtering and it drives a negative spiral of mood downward now the thing
about the negative filtering is it also relates to your mood itself so when you think about your mood
if you're engaging in this negative filtering when you think about your mood all you can
think about all you can remember is the times that you felt down and depressed as all of the
times where you felt content or happy they all get filtered out as well so all you think about
is negative stuff and all you can think about is all the times you've experienced depression
so as you filter out these positives it doesn't even matter that there are positives in your life
because you're not even aware that those positives are there so there are positives but it's almost
like it doesn't even matter if there were because i'm not even recognizing the positives exist
see the thing is we only respond emotionally to the things that we pay attention to
and if all i pay attention to are the negative things the negative stuff
my life is gonna feel like it's nothing but this pile of negativity
that i'm gonna feel more depressed and as a result life becomes unrelentlessly bleak and depressing
so you can see how this filtering can just lead to this spiraling of
low mood and leading to more filtering and it just really drives your mood and how you feel
downwards so what can you do about this what can you do about filtering
well the first step like with all of these cognitive distortions i'm talking about
is you need to be aware that you're actually engaging in filtering you need to recognize that
you're doing it and that with depressed mood it means that i'm more likely it's more likely than
not that i'm filtering out a lot of the positives so recognizing that the filtering and my low mood
is causing me to not see a lot of things in my life that might be positive um the
example i i like to use with my clients to sort of sort of demonstrate this is to imagine i was
looking at the mona lisa and as i'm looking at the mona lisa all i'm doing is focusing on the nose
and i say to myself how is this good art how is this such wonderful art it it's just a nose
see as long as i just focus on one small part of it i lose a sense of the bigger picture and
i don't see it for what it is i just see it for being a nose that's similar to what happens with
filtering so when you catch yourself filtering the idea is to to imagine yourself zooming out so
you're not just staring at the mona lisa's lisa's nose you zoom out and you pay attention
to the whole picture think about using a wider lens and expanding your perception and your your
focus on what exactly you're focusing on so it's not just one aspect of it but a much wider picture
to ensure that you're not just filtering out a whole bunch of stuff and paying attention to
just a few of the negatives so i hope that makes sense i would love to hear your thoughts and
ideas about filtering if you notice yourself doing it or if you have any questions about it
please leave me some comments in the comment section down below if you're enjoying my
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thank you for making it all the way to the end of this video and i will see you in the next one