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Learning about cognitive distortions

Hope September 28th, 2023

Hi everyone! I hope you are doing well. Did you know not everything we think is actually true? I know, shocking! But it turns out that is the case. However, it does not stop us from believing everything we think. According to the National Science Foundation, 80% of our thoughts are negative and 95% of our thoughts are repetitive. If we are thinking negatively so often, we must equip ourselves with tools to help weed out the thoughts that are not true.

This brings up the topic of cognitive distortions. Harvard Health describes them as ‘Internal mental filters or biases that increase our misery, fuel our anxiety, and make us feel bad about ourselves’ Examples of these distortions:

  • Everyone hates me

  • Everything sucks

  • I will for sure fail this test

  • Life will never get better

  • This always happens

  • I can never resort to anything


There are many distortions but they all have one thing in common, they magnify the worst, minimize your ability to deal with negative outcomes, and make you feel pessimistic. Everyone falls victim to them but some of us more than others. But how do you save yourself when you don’t know what they are? That is why if your life feels all negative, if your days feel only gloomy, or if you feel no hope, it's worth following along with this post series and identifying these distortions to improve the quality of your life.

I will be making a series of posts addressing one distortion at a time, hopefully once a week. What we will do is look at one distortion at a time, notice it in our thoughts and slowly cultivate the habit of challenging negative thoughts with more realistic less flawed thoughts.

If you wish to be tagged in the posts, please fill out this form.

Series now open for participation. Complete all prompts given in the posts and submit the series evaluation form to earn a certificate. Deadline is November 30, 2024. 

All the posts made so far are linked below:

  1. Catastrophizing 
  2. Mind Reading
  3. Black-and-white thinking 
  4. Personalization
  5. Emotional Reasoning
  6. Fallacy of Change
  7. Comparison
  8. Labeling
  9. Should statements
  10. Mental Filtering 
  11. Series eval form


19
Sunisshiningandsoareyou September 28th, 2023

@Hope

Looking forward to them! Submitted!😊

sensitivemom83 September 28th, 2023

I read the Harvard article, very helpful. Hope these post will help as well.

amiableBunny4016 September 28th, 2023

Signed up! Can't wait!

ty47 September 28th, 2023

So based on the meaning, we can also have positive cognitive distortions, for example, someone thinking everyone likes them but turns out no one does (aka delulu/delusional) because they have a high ego; so is it still positive even if in the long run might be negative?

1 reply
Hope OP October 2nd, 2023

@ty47

The word distortion means a fault in thinking. I don't believe we will classify your example as a positive distortion as it is covered under the original verbiage. Whether it pleases your ego or hurts your self-esteem, if the thought it self is faulty and not contributing to a healthy mindset then it maybe covered under cognitive distortions.

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AnnaSilverberg September 29th, 2023
@Hope

Amazing!
I've signed up!
Can't wait to see more!
✨💙

Myosotis17 September 29th, 2023

@Hope

Why is this under Site updates?

1 reply
Hope OP October 2nd, 2023

@Myosotis17

Site updates has a sub-forum for admins, so I have posted under my own forum section which happens to be in site updates.

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LoveMyMoonflowers September 29th, 2023

I’ve signed up! :3 I’m so excited for these! 💛

lyricalAngel70 October 13th, 2023

Great! Thanks a lot

independentMelon5809 October 22nd, 2023

@Hope

This is amazing! Looking forward to following along 

BenittaJ November 3rd, 2023

@Hope 🥺 Thanks for this post