TEN COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS 1. ALL OR NOTHING THINKING You see things in black and white (either or) categories failing to recognize shades of gray or colors, For example, if your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself asa total failure. 2. OVERGENERALIZATION You see a single negative event as a never ending pattern or the entire reality. 3. MENTAL FILTER You focus on and dwell on a single negative factor exclusively, so that your vision of reality becomes darkened like the drop of ink that discolors the entire beaker of water. 4, DISQUALIFYING THE POSITIVE You reject positive experiences by insisting they “don’t count” for some reason or another. In this way you can maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your overall experience. 5. JUMPING TO CONCLUSIONS You draw a negative conclusion or make a negative interpretation, even though there are no definite facts that convincingly support your conclusion. 4 A. MIND READING You arbitrarily conclude that somebody is reacting negatively to you and you do not bother to check it out, B THE FORTUNE TELLER ERROR You anticipate that things will tum out badly and you feel convinced that your prediction is an already established fact 6. MAGNIFICATION(“CATASTROPHIZING”) OR MINIMIZATION The tendency to blow negative things out of proportion (like a mistake) by exag- erating its implications or you shrink the importance of positive things (like your desirable qualities or achievements.) 7. EMOTIONAL REASONING You assume that your negative emotions necessurily reflect the way things really are. “feel it; therefore, it must be true.” r 8. THE SHOULD/MUST/OUGHT SYNDROME ‘A. You try to motivate yourself with “shoulds” and “shouldn't (“musts and “oughts”, t00), as if you have to be whipped and punished before you can be expected to do anythingTEN COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS B. You evaluate with “should've, could've, and “would've, berating yourself or others for past mistakes and missed opportunities. This can result in guilt, as well as anger, frustration and resentment towards others. 9. LABELING AND MISLABELING ‘This is an extreme form of overgeneralization. Instead of describing an error, you attack a negetive label'to yourself or others. (“I’m a loser;” “He's a louse”) 10. PERSONALIZATION You see yourself as the cause of some negative external event for which, in fact, you were nor primarily responsible.