Hello Everyone & Welcome Back to the RealPositiveGirl Podcast!
Thank you so much for joining me again!
Happy Tuesday!
This week's theme for the podcast is: Cognitive Distortions
This week I want to talk about 5 specific Cognitive Distortions & how these thought patterns affect us on the daily.
Cognitive distortions are unhealthy ways of thinking that can cause your mind to spin out of control. These can also lead to increased anxiety & depression.
More specifically it would be irrational & exaggerated thoughts that are highly based in negative thoughts. And a lot of times this thought pattern is habitual, which creates more problems as time goes on because this type of behavior isn’t helpful in the least.
Here are some notes from today's episode:
- Overgeneralizing is something I don’t slip into too often these days. I’m way too specific with most things in my life & try very hard to keep an open-mind so I don’t get caught up in this distorted thought process, but I know this cognitive distortion affects many.
- Overgeneralizing can be thought of as making broad assumptions about something from limited experience. So something like going out on a date but not being asked out for a second date can lead someone to think they will never find love or never be asked out on a second date because of that one experience. Another example: You go on a job interview & feel like it went bad & assume you won’t get the job & maybe no job you want at all. You see how this can spiral out of control so quickly?
- This thought pattern will often include the use of words like, ‘all’ or ‘every’ or ‘always’ or ‘never’.
- And you might be thinking, well I have been able to predict something happening the way I thought it would or my generalization was right, but only because the actions you took after having that thought led to you making it true. Like giving up on dating or never going on a job interview again.
- Overgeneralizing isn’t helpful because it’s so limiting. There are too many factors in real life that contribute to what happens in our everyday lives. It’s a narrow view of what has happened & what will happen & how you see the situation or person. And when I say person, yes, this can include prejudices. You might meet someone of a specific cultural background & assume you know everything about people from that background from this one interaction.
- And it’s the insecurities that cause people to give up & give in to these self-defeating thought patterns & force this to become a depressing cycle.
- Overgeneralizing makes me think a lot about assumptions. I hate assumptions. I truly believe the phrase, “Assumptions make an ass out of you.” I also believe assumptions & overgeneralizations come out of thought laziness & a lack of perspective.
- Something else about overgeneralizing that can help you understand it better is it’s like creating a rule for life based on 1 or 2 experiences. Again, VERY limiting.
- So let’s talk about some ways to limit overgeneralizations.
- 1. Become aware of this thought pattern.
- 2. Making sure you’re grounded in reality before jumping to conclusions or decisions.
- 3. Exchange your negative thoughts with positive thoughts.
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