Cognitive Distortions: Do Any Apply To You?

Every second someone has a thought about a person, place, action, thing, event, etc. But how often, if ever, do we think about our thoughts? Recently, I’ve learned more in depth about how thoughts that can negatively effect my day, an event, or anything that applies to my life. These particular thoughts are known as cognitive distortions. The ten cognitive distortions are: all-or-nothing thinking, overgeneralization, mental filter, disqualifying the positive, jumping to conclusions, magnification (catastrophizing) or minimization, emotional reasoning, should statements, labeling and mislabeling, and personalization. Following is a simple explanation of each distortion based on notes I have taken.

All-or-nothing thinking: Only seeing things in black-and-white. Example: If something didn't go the way that you wanted it to, then everything is all wrong.
Overgeneralization: Seeing one negative event as the only way everything else will turn out.
Mental filter: Dwelling on only one negative thing that you cannot see anything else besides that. Example: You want to breakup with your friend because they own ugly clothes, and you forget they were the shoulder to cry on when your dog died.
Disqualifying the positive: Never accepting the positive things that happen to you for some reason, even if plenty of them do. Example: You went shopping and everything you liked was on sale, fit, and the sales people were helpful... but there was traffic and your day is now totally ruined.
Jumping to conclusions: Making a negative conclusion without any definite facts.
-Two of which are mind reading and “fortune-teller error”. Mind reading is when you illogically conclude that someone is reacting to you in a negative way, not even bothering figure out if it is true. “Fortune-teller error” is predicting and then convincing yourself that things will turn out badly.
Magnification or Minimization: Exaggerating the value of things, or shrinking things to be insignificant. Example: Getting an A makes you the smartest person in class, or being just 10 minutes late for work is no big deal.
Emotional reasoning: Assuming that a negative emotion reflects how things really are. Example: "I feel stupid, therefore I am stupid."
Should statements: Telling yourself you should and shouldn’t do things, as if you would be punished if not following through. Using should statements to yourself leads to feelings of guilt, or frustration towards others.
Labeling and mislabeling: A radical overgeneralization. Instead of simply labeling the error, you label your self worth or who you are. Example: If your friend doesn't feel like hanging out, you think "I am not fun to be around."
Personalization: Seeing yourself as the reason for a negative event, even if you were not responsible.

Not all of these distorted thoughts apply to everyone. After learning about these distortions, I tried to be more aware of which apply to me. Just being aware of my thoughts has benefited me immensely. It is still difficult to change them because some of these distortions have been apart of my life for a long time. However, I noticed a difference in my ability to view certain situations in another light which has brought a lot of liberation. I believe that when a person can realize how they think, they can change the way they think feeling less stress overall.