How to Notice and Fix Cognitive Distortions to Live Healthier and Happier

I wish I had known about my irrational thoughts and inaccurate beliefs much earlier.

One of the best knowledge and skill for my personal growth, health, and happiness was learning about cognitive distortions and finding practical solutions to deal with them quickly and effectively. Like millions of people, I struggled with cognitive distortions before starting my professional life.

The term cognitive distortion was the first time (in 1963) used by Psychiatrist Dr. Aaron Beck, who was the father of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), which I mentioned in my previous mental health articles. Inspiringly, Dr. Beck lived 100 years.

Working with his depressed patients as a psychiatrist, Dr. Beck discovered that those people experienced intense negative thoughts rising spontaneously. He called them “automatic thoughts,” which I unfold in this article with examples and giving perspectives from my solution approach.

Dr. Beck’s guidance and support in identifying cognitive distortions enabled his patients to think more realistically and made them feel good, favorably changing their emotions and behaviors.

Dr. Beck laid the foundation for the role of thoughts and beliefs in mental health. Since then, many more cognitive scientists and CBT practitioners (psychologists and psychiatrists) have improved his method. You can find many free online courses to improve your cognitive health and performance.

What are common cognitive distortions, and why do they matter?

Cognitive distortions are inaccurate and irrational thoughts and beliefs. They can interfere with your perception of reality and influence your emotions, judgments, and behaviors.

These automatic thoughts come from your unconscious mind, coded as emotional memories. With strengthened neural pathways in your brain, these memories can evolve into habits and become unrecognizable. Therefore, it can be challenging to change them.

Cognitive distortions might manifest as unfavorable self-talk leading to low esteem, a sense of worthlessness, anxiety, fear, frustration, anger, envy, depression, guilt, shame, and other unpleasant emotions, causing physical and mental disorders.

People with cognitive distortions might have difficulty solving problems and building meaningful relations leading to physical and mental health issues and low quality of life. There is a strong connection between cognitive distortions, emotional regulation, and behavioral outcomes.

Dealing effectively and solving cognitive distortions might lead to increased self-awareness, effective problem-solving, faster emotional mastery, improved relationships, meaningful social connections, and better physical and mental health.

As CBT practitioners aim, a viable solution is to be aware of cognitive distortions and replace negative and unrealistic thoughts with rational ones that can positively change your emotions and behaviors.

I cover common cognitive distortions with examples from my life.

An Overview of Common Cognitive Distortions Based on My Experience

In this section, I summarize my interpretations of Dr. Beck’s original work publicly available in the literature and on the web. I use my experience to give you ideas on common distortions.

I’d like to start with “personalization,” as it was my common cognitive distortion in my younger years. When my parents, friends, or colleagues made negative comments, I perceived them as a personal attack and blamed myself for my imperfections (abnormalities). These perceptions forced me towards perfection and ruined my life.

The next one was “all-or-nothing thinking,” “overgeneralization,” “dichotomous thinking,” “polarized thinking,” or “mislabeling.”For example, when I made a mistake or failed a task, I perceived myself as a complete failure or a moron ignoring my achievements and good deeds.

Another cognitive distortion for me was “disqualifying the positive,” “magnification and minimization,” or “catastrophizing.” For example, I minimized my 90% achievements, mainly focussed on 10 % negatives by magnifying them, and expected the worst results.

“Jumping to conclusions” and “mind reading” not only adversely affected my knowledge accumulation but also dented my relationships with others.

Fortunately, my psychology teacher in college showed me my blind spot at a young age, asking me whether I had evidence for my conclusion. Fixing this issue expedited gaining knowledge by filtering noise.

Using “must/should statements” unnecessarily increased my stress and anxiety. These statements narrowed my perspectives, lowered my choices, and made me judgmental and demanding.

I was fortunate enough that a mentor in high school taught me to remove the “I must or I should” statements and replace them with better ones.

There are many more cognitive distortions, but I’d like to highlight “emotional reasoning,” which gave me a skewed view of reality and truth. I learned that my emotions had nothing to do with reality or universal truth.

Practical Solution Solved That Solved My Cognitive Distortions

The most significant impact in solving my cognitive distortions happened when I read the principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and practiced them with support from my mentors in college.

The second significant contribution was practicing mindfulness and meditating regularly.

I’d like to briefly summarize my method and tools to give you an idea.

Observing my thoughts and being aware of them was the first step. I used various techniques to identify my thoughts, such as expressive writing and self-talk, by recording them via a tape recorder on those days.

Then the next critical step was to accept them no matter how disturbing and challenging they were. Mindful living and meditation was the best method to implement this strategy.

The third step was challenging my thoughts and feelings. The simplest and most helpful question was, “Is this real or true?” Then I asked open-ended questions using why and how for each thought and feeling.

These closed and open-ended questions helped me reframe my thoughts. For example, a thought like “you are a failure” came to mind, and I reframed it by acknowledging, “yes, I failed this task, and it was bad, but I learned a lot from it, so I can turn it into success next time.”

By using cognitive restructuring, mindfulness practices, regular meditation, and self-care activities, recognizing my cognitive distortions became fast and easy. Fortunately, in later years, I had an opportunity to study cognitive science and learned a lot about how the brain and mind work.

In addition, intensely reviewing the literature, especially case studies, allowed me to discover many techniques to manage my thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that I share in my personal stories, books, and blog posts transparently, hoping this tacit knowledge might help some people.

I was lucky to be self-sufficient in managing my cognitive distortions, but it might not be possible for everyone, or it might be challenging or time-consuming.

I have empathy and compassion for those as some of my loved ones suffer from this situation. The solution for those people is to seek professional help from CBT practitioners, psychologists, and qualified therapists who can provide valuable insights safely and effectively.

Conclusions

Common cognitive distortions are personalization, all-or-nothing, overgeneralization, polarization, creating dichotomy, disqualifying the positive, mislabeling, catastrophizing, magnifying, minimizing, mind reading, jumping to conclusions, and using must/should statements.

There are many more cognitive distortions, and you might gradually discover them. But addressing these common ones can significantly impact your health, well-being, and happiness.

Recognize and accept that cognitive distortions are a normal part of the human brain and thinking. Cognitive distortions are irrational and negative thinking patterns that can interfere with daily life.

They can be challenging to recognize and manage. It might not be possible to completely eliminate them.

However, it’s possible to reduce their negative impact on your life, minimize their influence on your relationships, and improve your overall well-being.

Recognizing and managing cognitive distortions is a process and may require time, effort, and skill building. However, with awareness, practice, and persistence, it can lead to significant improvements in mental health and overall well-being.

Cognitive distortions can lead to negative emotions and maladaptive behaviors. They can cause you to feel depressed, anxious, guilty, shameful, frustrated, or angry, lowering the quality of life.

You can leverage the power of mindfulness practices to manage your thoughts. By identifying and challenging negative thought patterns, you can gain a clearer and more balanced perspective. It can lead to greater insight into having a higher quality of life.

For example, by overcoming cognitive distortions, you can improve your physical and mental health, build stronger relationships, perform better at work, and enjoy a more fulfilling life.

Takeaway Points

1 — Observe and identify your thoughts through self-talk, journaling, expressive writing, feedback, or other methods that suit your needs.

2 — Accept all thoughts, no matter how terrible they might look or sound.

3 — Challenge thoughts by asking, “Is this real or true?” and use open-ended questions to explore them and create more options.

4 — Reframe negative and unpleasant thoughts into positive and pleasant ones using cognitive restructuring.

5 — Use mindfulness, meditation, and self-care to manage cognitive distortions.

6 — Practice a growth mindset, acceptance, optimism, and gratitude.

Regularly practice these steps to rewire your mind and create better thinking patterns, regulate emotions, and gain healthier habits.

By effectively managing cognitive distortions, you can achieve tranquility amidst inner and outer turmoil by increasing your adversity quotient and making yourself more resilient.

Thank you for reading my perspectives. I wish you a healthy and happy life.

Disclaimer: My posts do not include professional or health advice. I document my reviews, observations, experience, and perspectives only to provide information and create awareness.

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