The central tenet of cognitive behavioural therapy is that your thoughts will have a direct impact on your mood and behaviours.1
For example:
- Thinking the negative thought "I'm a failure" can make you feel worthless;
- Thinking the negative thought "I'm a burden" can cause you to feel shame and self-hatred;
- Thinking the negative thoughtÂ ï»ż"I'm not good enough" can influence you not to try something that you really want to do;
- Each of these thoughts - plus many, many more - can contribute to you feeling depressed.
On that note, in this blog post, we'd like to share with you a free excerpt from our Negative Thinking Bootcamp that details 10 thinking patterns - (also known as ï»żcognitive distortions2) which commonly fuel depression.
Thinking Pattern / Cognitive Distortion Which Fuels Depression #1:Â Filter Thinking
Filter thinking is where you filter out all of the âgoodâ or the âpositiveâ in a situation and only focus on the âbadâ or the ânegativeâ. This could take the form of, for example:
- Filtering out all of the praise your boss gives you for a project you worked on, and instead thinking âIâm bad at my jobâ because there was one small area where you made a mistake that theyâd like you to fix.
- Filtering out all of the times you were kind, patient and loving with your child, and instead focusing on the one time you snapped at them and thinking that you're a "terrible parent" as a result.
- Filtering out all of the posts on social media you saw of people doing regular, everyday things and instead focusing all of your attention on the one post where someone is on holidays somewhere beautiful â and then consequently thinking that your life is boring because you arenât on that holiday yourself.
- Filtering out all of the times you said âyesâ to doing a favour for someone, focusing on the one time you said ânoâ, and then consequently concluding that youâre "unhelpful".
- Filtering out all of the positives you bring to a relationship, focusing exclusively on the times when you needed your partner's support instead, and consequently concluding that you're a "burden" and that your partner would be "better off without you".
- Filtering out all of the times when you went along with what your partner wanted to do, focusing on the one time when you stood up for yourself and suggested that you both do what you want to do instead, and then consequently concluding that youâre a "difficult person to be with".
Thinking Pattern / Cognitive Distortion Which Fuels Depression #2:Â Overgeneralisation
This is where you make broad, big-picture conclusions about something based on very little information or evidence. Some common examples include:
- Thinking / concluding âI can't do anything rightâ after making one mistake.
- Thinking / concluding âpeople are such a**holesâ in response to a few users posting mean, abusive comments on social media.
- Thinking / concluding âall men / women are badâ in response to a couple of negative romantic relationships.
- Thinking / concluding âmarriage doesn't workâ after getting divorced.
- Thinking / concluding âtherapy doesnât workâ after trying only a few sessions and/or working with only a couple of therapists.
- Thinking / concluding âit isn't possible to overcome depressionâ after trying only a couple of medications and reading a couple of self-help books.
Thinking Pattern / Cognitive Distortion Which Fuels Depression #3:Â Personalisation
This is where you take personal responsibility for things that arenât in your control, and/or that have nothing to do with you. Personalisation often results in you blaming yourself for things that arenât your fault, and can take the form of, for example:
- Blaming yourself and thinking that itâs your fault that your partner is upset â even when whatâs troubling them is actually completely unrelated to you (such as in the case of them having a problem with their boss at work, for instance).
- Thinking âthe reason I was bullied as a child is because I'm a loser / because thereâs something wrong with meâ â when in reality, there mayâve been many, many other reasons why you were bullied that have absolutely nothing to do with you â such as because the bully was struggling with their own pain / demons / inner turmoil, which led them to act in the way that they did; because they were selfish; because they had one or more toxic personality traits; because they lacked empathy; because they had poor impulse control; because they didnât know how to regulate their emotions; because they had low self-esteem and consequently bullied you in order to feel powerful and therefore better about themselves; because they had a distorted perception of what is ârightâ and what is âwrongâ; because they were jealous of you; because they were unsatisfied with their own achievements in life and so they tried to sabotage yours so that you wouldnât âsurpass themâ; because they craved social approval / they wanted to try to improve their social standing; and/or because they were sadistic.
Thinking Pattern / Cognitive Distortion Which Fuels Depression #4:Â Catastrophisation
This is where you conclude that something is much more drastic, dire or hopeless than it actually is. For example:
- Thinking âI canât do ANYTHING rightâ in response to your boss giving you constructive criticism for a presentation you gave (which may be upsetting, but just means that you have room for improvement in this particular area â not that you canât do ANYTHING right).
- Catastrophising the reality âI havenât overcome depression yetâ into the definitive, all-conclusive prophecy âI will NEVER overcome depression!â
Thinking Pattern / Cognitive Distortion Which Fuels Depression #5:Â All-Or-Nothing Thinking
This is where you view something as either one extreme or the other, instead of having a more balanced, accurate perspective. For example:
- Thinking âIâm not as well prepared for this exam as Iâd like to be, so instead of acing it, Iâm going to failâ.
- Thinking âI know I donât look my best because I only had two minutes to get ready, so I must look terribleâ.
- Thinking âI made one silly comment in my job interview today, so the whole thing was a complete disasterâ.
Thinking Pattern / Cognitive Distortion Which Fuels Depression #6:Â Emotional Reasoning
This is where you reason that because you feel something, that it must be true. However, just because you feel something, it doesnât mean that itâs true at all (particularly when youâre struggling with depression, which can of course significantly distort the way you think and feel).
Thinking Pattern / Cognitive Distortion Which Fuels Depression #7:Â Mind-Reading
This is where you jump to conclusions about what someone else is thinking. For example:
- Mind-reading when it comes to what someone else thinks of your physical appearance â such as thinking âthey probably hate my new haircutâ.
- Mind-reading when it comes to what someone else thinks of your character â such as thinking âI shouldnât have said that â theyâll think Iâm an idiot nowâ, âthey saw me cry so they must think Iâm weakâ, or âeveryone thinks Iâm a burden because Iâm not as happy as I used to beâ.
- Mind-reading when it comes to the status of your relationships â such as thinking âweâre no longer friends because I arrived late to dinnerâ, âour relationship is on the rocks because theyâre in a bad moodâ, or âI have to make everything perfect for their birthday or else theyâll leave me".
Thinking Pattern / Cognitive Distortion Which Fuels Depression #8:Â Fortune Telling
This is another example of jumping to conclusions, where you make a prediction about the future and then assume it to be true. And, when you have depression, this most commonly involves making a negative prediction about the future, such as:
- Thinking âthis therapist / book / strategy, etcetera won't be able to help meâ, without even giving that therapist / book / strategy, etcetera a try.
- Thinking âI just know that dating apps won't work for meâ without ever using one.
Thinking Pattern / Cognitive Distortion Which Fuels Depression #9:Â Disqualifying The Positives
This is where, if something positive happens, you reject it or discount it instead of accepting and embracing it. An example of this would be receiving a compliment, but instead of believing it, disregarding it by thinking, âthey didnât mean it â they were just trying to be niceâ.
Thinking Pattern / Cognitive Distortion Which Fuels Depression #10:Â Should Statements
These are damaging expectations or beliefs you have about yourself, other people or the world about how things should be done or about the way things should be. For example:
- Thinking âI should have a better job by now ⊠Iâm such a loser for still being where I amâ.
- Thinking âI should have achieved more in my life by now ⊠Iâm such a failureâ.
Conclusion
When you're fighting depression, it can be really helpful to try to identify and bring awareness to when you may be engaging in one or more of these distorting thinking patterns. This is because if youâre able to recognise that your negative thoughts are indeed cognitive distortions â as opposed to being accurate perceptions of reality â then it will likely become much easier for you to dismiss them and push them from your mind (or at the very least, your negative thoughts will likely lose some of their power over you).
So, for this reason, we really encourage you to try to keep these distorted thinking patterns in mind.
All our love,
The Depression Project Team.Â
P.S. If you found this free excerpt from our Negative Thinking Bootcamp helpful and would like to get instant access to the entire Bootcamp in order to learn a wide variety of cognitive behavioural therapy strategies to help you cope with and overcome your negative thoughts, then we'd like to invite you to become a Depression Bootcamps Member - which will give you access to this Bootcamp and many, many more!