Transcript DAVID BURNS’ TEN COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS

DAVID BURNS’ TEN
COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS
Dr. Ruth Benjamin
Clinical Psychologist
THIS IS AN OPTICAL ILLUSION A COGNITIVE DISTORTION.
WE WILL KEEP SHOWING YOU MORE OF THESE
ALL OR NOTHING- BLACK
OR WHITE THINKING
• Cannot tolerate
anything less than
perfection.
• No gray areas
• A setback is a
complete failure
• If you are angry with
me, you hate me.
THESE LINES ARE ALL STRAIGHT
OVERGENERALIZING
• A single negative
event is seen as a
never-ending pattern
of defeat.
• If the morning begins
badly, the whole day
is ruined.
• If one apple is bad,
the whole box is
rotten.
DWELLING ON THE
NEGATIVE
• And ignoring the
positive.
• Don’t even HEAR the
positives.
• If we have a constructive
assessment which is 90%
positive and 10%
negative we only see or
hear the negative,
DISQUALIFYING THE
POSITIVE
• We insist our positive
qualities or
accomplishments
don’t count.
• We have succeeded
many times but we
only remember the
failure which
dominates our mind.
JUMPING TO
CONCLUSIONS
• We think we can
read people’s minds
and conclude they
are thinking badly of
us.
• We think things will
turn out badly even
when there is
absolutely no reason
to think so.
MAGNIFYING OR
MINIMIZING
• We blow up certain
things and shrink
others.
• Usually it is the
negatives that get
blown up and the
positives that shrink
either in ourselves
and others.
EMOTIONAL REASONING
• We judge from our
feelings.”I feel like an
idiot therefore I must
be one.”
• “I feel terrible this
morning, so I must
look terrible and
everyone can see it.”
• “If I feel it it must be
true”
MAKING “SHOULD”
STATEMENTS
• We criticize ourselves
and others with
words like “should”
and “shouldn’t”
• This creates
unnecessary guilt
and resentment.
LABELING AND
MISLABELING
• Instead of saying “I
made a mistake” or
“You forgot to lock
the door”, we say:
• “I never do anything
right” or “You are
such an idiot”
PERSONALIZING AND
BLAMING
• We either blame
ourselves for
something we were
not really responsible
for , or we blame
other people when
our own attitude and
behavior might have
contributed to the
problem.
OUR THOUGHTS OFTEN
DETERMINE OUR MOODS
• These Cognitive
Distortions cause us
to become angry and
lose our motivation.
• WE CAN UNTWIST
OUR THINKING