Cognitive Distortions: 7 Ways The Mind Sabotages Us
Self-esteem. One of the most used, treated, and consequently manipulated concepts in the history of psychology.
The cognitive current (that which includes “the mental” within the human equation) is the one that initiated the concept of self-esteem, defining it as the way (positive or negative) in which we value ourselves. And it is this same branch that defines self-esteem as the main participant in mental health or the absence of it With positive self-esteem, you will most likely have more positive thoughts about the world and yourself, a more optimistic perception of the future, and a greater subjective sense of happiness
However, self-esteem is not a factor fixed in our minds, something that does not change over time and does not depend on the situations we experience. In fact, it can increase or decrease depending on something we know like cognitive distortions
Self-esteem can give us the opportunity to feel good simply by being who we are. However, if self-esteem is negative, the effects are reversed. It is not that it is responsible for the factors of these listed factors, but that correlates with thoughts of the same valence , of the same sign so to speak. If we have poor self-esteem, this will be both the cause and consequence of negative thoughts and perceptions.
And it is in this vicious circle where cognitive distortions, irrational ideas and negative automatic thoughts hide. The mental illness triad, according to cognitive psychology. Briefly, we will define irrational ideas as beliefs that have no contact with reality and that are harmful to ourselves (everyone must approve of my behavior, otherwise I am worthless) and negative automatic thoughts as negative judgments in line with the first (you are not laughing at my joke; I am worthless). Cognitive distortions work by relying on these two elements to make us have a markedly biased view of what is happening.
If we pay attention to how cognitive distortions operate, we see that they are nothing more than the intermediate step between the two already described; the procedure or operation that our mind does to transform irrational belief into negative automatic thought That is, the way in which our own mind attacks us.
Let’s take a general example to simplify things.
We wake up one day full of energy and start the routine circuit of shower, coffee and toast. It’s not that there is anything special about the process, but it feels really good to us. On the way to work we think about how close we are to that Section Director position we’ve been working toward for months.
“I’m sure they’ll give it to me, I deserve it.”, we think. What is our surprise when we arrive at work and find that next to our table, our colleague’s things have disappeared and are being transported to the office of the vacant Section Manager… They have given it to him. It stings us, but on the other hand, he is a companion, and we are happy for him
Quite a common situation, isn’t it? Let’s see what our mind would do if it followed the logic of some of the most harmful distortions.
Types of cognitive distortions
What are the main cognitive distortions? We describe them below.
1. Hypergeneralization
Consists in choose a concrete fact, draw a general rule from it and never check this rule , so that it is always true. Possibly “I will never be good enough for the job” is what we would think if we hypergeneralized about not receiving it.
We know we are overgeneralizing when we use terms that are too absolute to be true: always, every, none, never, no one, everyone.
2. Global designation
The mechanism would be the same as the previous one. With the same situation, The only thing our mind does differently is give us a global label instead of a general rule So the thought would be: “I am a failure.”
The moment we begin to use clichés and stereotypes in our behavior in an insulting way, we must begin to contemplate the possibility of falling into this cognitive distortion.
3. Filtering
Through this type of cognitive distortions, The mind filters the lived reality by selecting some aspects and ignoring others In the example, we would focus on the loss of the opportunity for the position, and how useless we are, but we would overlook the fact that we can improve and the joy we feel for our colleague.
We may worry about this distortion when we repeatedly criticize ourselves for past issues, losses, injustices, or stupidities, or if these terms appear in criticism.
4. Polarized thinking
If we had committed this distortion, the example given would have started from a premise like: “if they don’t give me the position now, my professional future will be over.” Is about an absolutist way of thinking; white or black, no option for gray
Proposing challenges, goals or realities with conditionals (“if not…”) and contrasting options (“either they give me the job, or…”) gives us the clue that we are using this distortion.
5. Self-accusation
It consists of thinking in a way that the blame for the bad always falls on ourselves , which is different from whether or not we have real responsibility. Applied to the example it would take the form of: “Well, of course, if I have done everything wrong, how stupid I have been for even dreaming of the position. I will apologize to Pedro in case he thought that I was not happy for him.”
A symptom of this cognitive distortion is continually asking for forgiveness. We feel really guilty about something specific, and we compulsively ask for forgiveness.
6. Personalization
It occurs in that situation in which we feel as if we were guilty or related in some way to all the problems in our environment. It is similar to self-accusation, only monopolizes the reality of everyone around us, giving us the leading role
In the example, the thought would be something like “I knew that. I knew the boss was on me for not saving those clips. What she had not imagined was that she would ally with Pedro to exclude me.”
As its name suggests, the error or distortion is in assume that we know what the other thinks or feels about us What really happens is that we project our own emotions onto others; We assume that the rest will think or feel like us.
Cognitive distortion is especially harmful in this case, because it consists of a constant real-time attack on self-esteem. His form would be: “Sure, the boss doesn’t like me. He thinks I don’t do enough and that’s why he leaves me stuck here.”
The mind deceives us. What can we do?
In short, while it is true that this knowledge about cognitive distortions is not exactly new, it is also true that it is not public order. Today, in a world in which self-esteem has taken on a new digital dimension, It is necessary that we all emphasize those failures that the human mind tends to make when valuing oneself. The existence of cognitive distortions is a sign that, although we do not realize it, there are processes that work silently within our body, causing us to have a simplistic and biased version of many issues.
Without going any further, the examples shown here are part of life in such a natural way that they are considered “ways of being” as if human beings were designed to complicate their lives. It is a fallacy to think that we have no choice but to resign ourselves to harming ourselves and not valuing ourselves as we deserve.
Therefore, we cannot forget our personal direction in our own lives, and ask ourselves the key question: What now? Will we let this remain a heavy reminder again or will we choose to employ these small brushstrokes of knowledge?
