chapter three

Chapter Three covers the ten cognitive distortions:

1) All or nothing - seeing everything in black and white with no gray area. For example, "I failed once. I fail at everything."

2) Overgeneralization - "Life ALWAYS sucks."

3) Mental filter - dwelling on only the negative bits while ignoring the positive.

4) Disqualifying the positive - saying the good things you've done or that is said about you don't count.

5) Jumping to conclusions -
a. mind reading - guessing someone else's thoughts. "He must think I'm an idiot."
b. fortune telling - expecting a poor future. "Life will always, inevitably suck."

6) Magnification and minimization (aka the binocular trick) -
a. magnification - blowing small errors out of proportion.
b. fortune telling - minimizing your good qualities.

7) Emotional reasoning - You think emotions equal the truth. "If I feel like a jerk, then I must be a jerk."

8) Should statements - "I should/must do this."

9) Labeling and mislabeling - a form of extreme overgeneralization. "I am a moron." or "She's a jerk."

10) Personalization - assuming it's your fault for things that aren't in your control. "My kid's misbehavior is my fault."

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I can see all of these in operation in my life. I was kindof disturbed that using "I should..." statements is in here, because that's how I keep myself operating. "I should get up in the morning. I should eat breakfast. I should do the things I need to do in order to keep life going..." How am I supposed to operate without that list?