Thinking distortions and their impact on mental health

What are thinking distortions?


We all have thought patterns - thinking habits and beliefs that have been shaped by our experiences and environment. Thought patterns are vital to our wellbeing; they help us make sense of what’s going on in the world around us, and influence how we feel and behave. However, thinking distortions are thinking patterns that can cause distressing feelings and prompt behaviour that maintains or magnifies those feelings. These thinking patterns often develop due to difficult life experiences, and although most people have negative thoughts when they face stress and stressful situations, some people get ’stuck’ in these thoughts, which then feed cycles of distressing emotions, depression, anxiety, and behavioural disorders.


→ Many people are unaware of their own thinking distortions, because it is their ‘normal’, but when examined more closely, it is often possible to discover a wider pattern of unhelpful thinking which these distortions support. And with practice, it is possible to recognise these distortions - both in ourselves, as well as in others.


Common thinking distortions


  • All or nothing thinking - You see things as either all good, or all bad, with no grey areas in between. If your performance is not perfect, you see this as a failure.
  • Negative mental filter - You focus on a single negative detail about something or someone, and dwell upon it exclusively, so it darkens your view of reality.
  • Overgeneralisation - You see a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat.
  • Disqualifying the positive - You ignore or disregard positive experiences, and by doing so, retain negative beliefs about yourself or the world around you, even when everyday positive experiences contradict this.
  • Jumping to negative conclusions - You interpret something in a negative way, even though there are no definite facts or reasons to support your conclusions. This can include thinking that someone has negative thoughts or feelings about you, without any evidence, and believe that things will turn out badly, and therefore you think and behave as though your prediction has already happened.
  • Mislabelling - You attach a negative label to someone when you disagree with someone else’s behaviour or opinion. For example: ‘He’s totally incompetent’ or ‘He’s an idiot.’ Mislabelling usually involves a language that is emotionally loaded.
  • Labelling - You consistently attach a negative label to yourself, for example: ‘I’m a loser’ or ‘I’m useless.’
  • Exaggerating or minimising - You exaggerate the importance of your mistakes, or minimize your own good qualities until they appear tiny. 
  • Catastrophising - You give weight to the worst possible outcome of a given situation or event, however unlikely this is.
  • Emotional reasoning - You assume that your negative emotions reflect reality, even when they clearly don’t, for example: ‘I feel it, therefore it must be true.’
  • Distorted sense of self-worth - You believe that in order to accept yourself as worthy, or to feel good about yourself, you have to perform in a certain way all or most of the time.
  • Personalising - You see yourself as the cause of some negative external event which in fact you were not responsible for.
  • Blaming - The opposite to personalising is blaming another person entirely, taking no responsibility for your own actions: ‘It is always someone else’s fault.’
  • ‘Should’ statements - You live by fixed rules, with little or no flexibility, regardless of whether or not this is appropriate, and so you feel anger, frustration and resentment when you direct ‘should’ statements to others: for example: ‘they should be doing that’, or ‘they should be saying this.’ You also feel guilty when you direct ‘should’ statements to yourself, for example: ‘I should be accomplishing this.’


Recognising and challenging thinking distortions.


→ Learning to recognise and challenge thinking distortions can significantly help reduce emotions like depression, anxiety or anger. Over time, negative thoughts become less automatic, and are replaced by more helpful, balanced and positive thinking.