Patterns of Unhelpful Thinking

Catastrophizing – assuming and believing that the worst case scenario will inevitably happen

Emotional Reasoning – I feel bad about a situation so it must be bad and my feelings are universal truth

Mountains and Molehills – exaggerating the risk of danger or focusing on minor negatives and imperfections

Minimization – minimizing the odds of how things are more likely to turn out or minimizing positives

Judgements – relying more heavily on our assumptions than that which we have evidence for

Black and White Thinking – things are only good or bad, right or wrong – not anything in between or shades of grey

Memories – events trigger memories, suggesting past events are NOW, not in the past and cause you distress right now

Mind-Reading – assuming that we know what other people are thinking about (usually about us)

Prediction – believing we know what’s going to happen next or sometime in the future

Compare and Despair – seeing only positive aspects in others, and comparing ourselves poorly against them

Critical Self – putting ourselves down, and assuming blame in situations that are not our full responsibility

Shoulds and Musts – limiting ourselves by rules, expectations and putting pressure on ourselves

Written by Pam