Cognitive distortions: 7 ways the mind sabotages us

Self-esteem. One of the most used, treated, and consequently handled concepts in the history of psychology.

The cognitive current (the one that includes "the mental" within the human equation) is the one that started the concept of self-esteem, defining it as the way (positive or negative) in which we value ourselves ourselves. And it is this same branch that defines self-esteem as the main participant of mental health or the absence of it. With positive self-esteem, you are more likely to have more positive thoughts about the world and yourself, a more optimistic perception of the future, and a greater subjective sense of self. happiness.

However, self-esteem is not a fixed factor in our mind, something that does not change over time and does not depend on the situations we live in. In fact, it can go up or down depending on something we know as cognitive distortions.

When self-esteem is low ...

Self-esteem can give us the opportunity to feel good just being who we are. However, if self-esteem is negative, the effects are reversed. It is not that I am responsible for the factors of these listed factors, but rather that

correlates with thoughts of its own valence, of his own sign so to speak. If we have bad self-esteem, this will be both a cause and a consequence of negative thoughts and perceptions.

And it is in this vicious circle that cognitive distortions, irrational ideas and negative automatic thoughts hide. The triad of mental evil, 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 former (not laughing at my joke; I'm worth nothing). Cognitive distortions work by relying on these two elements to make us have a markedly biased vision of what happens.

Where are cognitive distortions hiding?

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 our own mind attacks us.

Let's take a general example to keep things simple.

We wake up one day full of energy and start the routine shower, coffee and toast circuit. Not that there is anything special in the process, but it suits us really well. On the way to work we think about how close that position of Section Director is that we have been striving for for months.

"Sure they give it to me, I deserve it", we think. What is our surprise when we get to work and we find that next to our table, things of the colleague have disappeared and are being transported to the office of the vacancy of section... They have given it to him. It stings us, but on the other hand, it is about a partner, 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 damaging distortions.

Types of cognitive distortions

What are the main cognitive distortions? We describe them below.

1. Hypergeneralization

Consists in choose a specific fact, draw a general rule from it and never check this rule, so that it is always true. Possibly "I'll never be good enough for the job" is what we would think if we overgeneralized by not receiving it.

We know that we are hyper-generalizing when we use terms that are too absolute to be true: always, every, none, never, nobody, all.

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 start to use clichés and stereotypes to our behavior in a insultingly, we must begin to contemplate the possibility of falling into this distortion cognitive.

3. Filtered out

Through these kinds 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 job opportunity, and how useless we are, but we would overlook the fact that we can improve and the joy we feel for our co-worker.

We can 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 such as: “if they don't give me the job now, my professional future will be over”. Is about an absolutist way of thinking; white or black, no option to gray.

Raising challenges, goals or realities with conditionals ("if not ...") and opposing options ("or 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 actual responsibility. Applied to the example, it would take the form of: "Well of course, if I have done everything wrong, how stupid have I been for even dreaming about the position. I will apologize to Pedro in case he thought that I was not happy for him ”.

One symptom of this cognitive distortion is being continually asking forgiveness. We really feel guilty about something in particular, and we compulsively ask for forgiveness.

6. Personalization

It occurs in that situation in which we feel as if we are guilty or are related in some way to all the problems in our environment. It is similar to self-accusation, only monopolizes the reality of all those around us, giving us the leading role.

In the example, the thought would be something like “I knew it. I knew the boss swore it to me for not saving those clips. What I had not imagined is that he was going to ally himself with Pedro to exclude me ”.

7. Mind reading

As the 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 the rest; we assume that the rest will think or feel like us.

Cognitive distortion is especially damaging 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 that I am not doing enough and that is 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 of public order. Today, in a world where self-esteem has taken on a new digital dimension, it is necessary for all of us to emphasize those faults that the human mind tends to commit when it comes to valuing oneself. The existence of cognitive distortions is a sign that, although we do not realize it, there are processes that work silently inside our body causing us to have a simplistic and biased version of many matters.

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 life. It is a fallacy to think that we have no choice but to resign ourselves to hurting 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 boring reminder again, or will we choose to employ these little brush strokes of knowledge?

As always, the decision is up to each one of us.