May increase anxiety and depression, potentially causing psychological damage Manifest itself as negative emotions or feelings It is important to recognize that all cognitive distortions are:įalse, inaccurate, and often exaggerated thoughts If the thought distortions are reinforced often enough due to our habitual thinking, it can lead to an increase in anxiety, depression, and unhealthy relationships. This is good for helping us remember things but can be dangerous for negative thoughts and emotions such as anxiety or depression. It remembers things from our past and will tend to take that same connection when similar thoughts or emotions occur. This makes them difficult to recognize, as their habitual nature is wired into our brains. These common thought patterns occur automatically in our normal day-to-day thoughts. They convince our minds what we’re thinking is true. What is a Cognitive DistortionĬognitive distortions are irrational thought patterns that are exaggerated by negative thinking and feelings. We will go through the list of common thinking traps and provide you with examples to help you understand each of them. His book, Feeling Good - The New Mood Therapy, outlines his approach to treating depression and is often recommended by therapists to their patients.īurns identified many of the different types of thought distortions that we are familiar with today. It was David Burns who help popularized the approach to treating depression by focusing on identifying, correcting, and replacing distorted systems and thinking patterns.
He hypothesized that changing their thinking would change their symptoms. Cognitive distortions were first understood when Aaron Beck connected distorted thinking patterns with his patients struggling with depression.
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