Negative Thinking: Recognize It
Mar. 14th, 2009 07:05 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
liveonearthFound this list here thanks to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
midnight_swirl. Check out the original article here.
11 STYLES OF NEGATIVE THINKING
1. Filtering: You see and hear only the things you have selected. Usually negative and are blind to the positive
2. Polarizing: This is often referred to as “black and white’ thinking.
3. Overgeneralization: It has to do with taking one isolated fact or event and making a general rule out of it.
4. Mind Reading: Self Talk, mind reading, is fatal to self-esteem, because you are especially liable to think that everyone agrees with your negative opinions of yourself.
5. Self-blame: No need to explain that one.
6. Personalization: This is the “it’s all about me” self-talk because you already see yourself as insertt negative things here.
7. Control Fallacies: You hold yourself responsible for everything that goes wrong. Be sure to read this one in the article.
8. Shoulds: You have a list of ironclad rules about how you and other people should act. People who break the rules anger you and you feel guilty if you violate the rules.
I'm sure at least one if not many of these things are familiar to you even if you did not have a name for it. Naming, Identifiying it is the first step to help us find ways to undo these harmful perceptions and thought about ourselves.
Do you already have some coping techniques you use when these happens or now that you see them do you see ways that you can take control of the issues?
9. Fallacy of Change: You expect that other people will change to suit you if you just pressure and cajole them enough. You need to change people because your hopes for happiness seem to depend entirely on them.
10. Global Labeling: You generalize one or two qualities into a global judgment. If you catch yourself fixing labels on everything that once and for all defines them in a negative light, watch yourself. You may be labeling things as a way to avoid dealing with them in a dynamic way. Here are some clues: My house is a pigsty, I’m a poor money manager, my boss is a grouch, my roommate is a slob, I’m awful at math, etc.
11. Emotional reasoning: You discount your rational thinking and rely solely on how you feel about thing to understand them. You believe that what you feel must be true automatically. If you feel stupid and boring, you are stupid and boring - if you feel useless, you must be useless.
midnight_swirl. Check out the original article here.11 STYLES OF NEGATIVE THINKING
1. Filtering: You see and hear only the things you have selected. Usually negative and are blind to the positive
2. Polarizing: This is often referred to as “black and white’ thinking.
3. Overgeneralization: It has to do with taking one isolated fact or event and making a general rule out of it.
4. Mind Reading: Self Talk, mind reading, is fatal to self-esteem, because you are especially liable to think that everyone agrees with your negative opinions of yourself.
5. Self-blame: No need to explain that one.
6. Personalization: This is the “it’s all about me” self-talk because you already see yourself as insertt negative things here.
7. Control Fallacies: You hold yourself responsible for everything that goes wrong. Be sure to read this one in the article.
8. Shoulds: You have a list of ironclad rules about how you and other people should act. People who break the rules anger you and you feel guilty if you violate the rules.
I'm sure at least one if not many of these things are familiar to you even if you did not have a name for it. Naming, Identifiying it is the first step to help us find ways to undo these harmful perceptions and thought about ourselves.
Do you already have some coping techniques you use when these happens or now that you see them do you see ways that you can take control of the issues?
9. Fallacy of Change: You expect that other people will change to suit you if you just pressure and cajole them enough. You need to change people because your hopes for happiness seem to depend entirely on them.
10. Global Labeling: You generalize one or two qualities into a global judgment. If you catch yourself fixing labels on everything that once and for all defines them in a negative light, watch yourself. You may be labeling things as a way to avoid dealing with them in a dynamic way. Here are some clues: My house is a pigsty, I’m a poor money manager, my boss is a grouch, my roommate is a slob, I’m awful at math, etc.
11. Emotional reasoning: You discount your rational thinking and rely solely on how you feel about thing to understand them. You believe that what you feel must be true automatically. If you feel stupid and boring, you are stupid and boring - if you feel useless, you must be useless.
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no subject
Date: 2009-03-15 03:48 am (UTC)I think it goes beyond "negative thinking." I like the term "cognitive distortion" because it accurately conveys the idea that it isn't about NEGATIVITY. It's about having an organic brain.
Look -- if you tried to figure out how far three feet is with a ruler, you'd have no trouble. If you tried to figure out how far three feet is without a ruler - it's impossible. That's not because you aren't being POSITIVE enough -- it's because you can't. Your subjective, organic brain just isn't wired up to be able to do that.
There isn't ONE thing on that list of cognitive distortions that I don't do at least once a month -- and I KNOW that list. I've memorized that list. I still DO them. Why? Because my brain is made out of meat... just like yours.
What I do have on my side is that I have memorized that list. When I identify a cognitive distortion - I challenge it. When you start to do that - you wind up getting less of them -- which is certainly good enough, but in the long term you're more equipped to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.
That list of cognitive distortions is your yard stick that you can use to double-check the way you think.
Yeah. I like it.
no subject
Date: 2009-03-15 04:16 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-03-15 04:35 pm (UTC)