The world around us is chaotic and constantly changing. While some of us choose not to dwell on the chaos and focus on the positive side of things, many people out there are continuously influenced by them. Ever wondered why?
According to experts, cognitive distortions are at the core of most cognitive and behavioural issues that people suffer from. If your mind tends to convince you of something that isn’t true, by reinforcing negative thoughts and emotions that leave you feeling hopeless or distressed about life, it’s called cognitive distortion.
Psychotherapists regularly interact with such individuals to slowly unwind and correctly identify this kind of negative thoughts and help them deal with it productively. By refuting these dark thoughts and perceptions over and over, psychotherapists help you to automatically replace them with rational and sensible thinking.
People who constantly suffer from anxiety and panic attacks are victims of multiple cognitive distortions. Their mind is wired in such a way that the immediate reaction or response to a situation is elevated anxiety and panic. To help these individuals cope with their negative thoughts and feelings better, psychotherapists have devised a set of proven methods to fix cognitive distortions.
In this blog, let us learn more about cognitive distortions that lead to anxiety and panic attacks and how psychotherapists help people suffering from them find positivity in life.
Cognitive distortions: A Brief Study
In 1976, psychologist Aaron Beck proposed the initial theory of cognitive distortions. Over the years, this was widely studied and interpreted to understand common distortions and their examples. A popular theory proposed by David Burns in the 1980s helps break them down further; some of them are discussed below:
- Filtering
Here, a person applies a cognitive filter that only allows them to see the negatives of an everyday situation by filtering out all the positive aspects of it.
- Polarized Thinking (or “Black and White” Thinking)
Also known as ‘black and white thinking’, people with this type of cognitive behaviour place all situations into good or bad. They don’t recognize grey areas and only see things in extremes.
- Overgeneralization
If a person comes to a quick conclusion based on a single piece of evidence or a single incident, it is a cognitive distortion called overgeneralization.
- Jumping to Conclusions
As the term suggests, jumping to conclusions is a cognitive distortion where the person determines what another person is thinking or feeling as if they could read their mind without fact-checking their thoughts.
- Catastrophizing
This is a negative thought process where a person expects a disaster to strike and imagines the worst possible scenarios to occur.
- Personalization
Here, a person tends to believe that everything that another person says or does is directed at them. They literally take everything personally.
- Control Fallacies
Control fallacies cause a person to have beliefs about being in complete control of every situation in their life. When something goes wrong, either they see themselves as a victim of fate or assume responsibility for another person’s feelings.
- Fallacy of Fairness
As the name suggests, here a person feels upset, hopeless, or resentful when people don’t agree with their idea of fairness or impartiality.
- Blaming
If a person holds others responsible for their negative emotions such as pain and anxiety, or blame themselves for every problem that is outside their control, it’s termed as blaming.
- Emotional Reasoning
Emotional reasoning is a kind of distorted reasoning process where a person believes their feelings to be the absolute truth.
Most people experience some kind of cognitive distortions from time to time. They also have an innate ability to cope with them and move on in life. However, when a person suffers from a strong case of cognitive distortions, it can lead to anxiety, panic attacks, and even deepen depression and cause a host of other complications.
Coping With Distorted Thinking
To help a person suffering from anxiety or panic attacks cope with their feelings, physiotherapists dig deep into their cognitive distortions. When you feel bad about something, it is necessary to learn from the situation and take life in stride rather than reverting and reinforcing a pattern of feeling bad about yourself.
With the help of experts at wellness centers and a lot of practice, it is possible to analyze a situation rationally and think positively and sensibly. Let’s see how it is possible:
Stage 1 – Identify Your Emotions
Cognitive distortions negatively impact one’s emotional intelligence. Often, people fail to see or understand that they are under emotional distress that could lead to anxiety and panic attacks. Failure to recognize one’s emotions causes people to go on a downward spiral of negative thinking.
So the first step towards productively dealing with your negative thinking is to identify your exact emotion. Ask yourself what you are feeling in a given situation. Is it fear, sadness, anger, or pain? Note down your feelings in a book whenever you are feeling bad about yourself or your life in general.
Stage 2 – Accept Your Feelings
The next stage is to accept your feelings. Understand that you are driven by your emotions and not logic, which is the reason for your predicament. But do not panic. Take a deep breath and tell yourself that it is okay to have these feelings. Accepting your negative feelings should be a liberating experience. Start loving and believing in yourself and give yourself the same encouragement that you would give a friend who’s in a similar spot.
Stage 3 – Uncover the Reasons
Once you accept your feelings, take the necessary steps to uncover the reason behind the said emotion. Ask yourself why you feel sad/angry/scared? Is it because you hold yourself to a higher standard than one that you use to judge others? Or is it because you think your feelings of self-criticism are the absolute truth?
Once you identify experiences and situations that have caused you distress, there are several ways to productively deal with them, which helps reduce your anxiety.
Stage 4 – Reality Check
Now that you have uncovered the reasons behind your distress take conscious steps to cope with them. Try removing yourself from the situation to examine it more objectively. Don’t be hard on yourself. Understand that not everything is completely right or completely wrong. Learn to accept the grey areas in life.
Instead of self-blaming, dissect the situation that has caused you distress. Was it triggered by another person? If so, assign them the responsibility of being a catalyst to your current emotional distress. It doesn’t mean that you are deflecting the issue and blaming another person, but rather understanding that you are not the sole reason for a failed situation.
Encourage yourself to think rationally. Your brain has a unique ability called neuroplasty to rearrange and grow neural networks that help in improving your cognitive abilities. Utilize it effectively and train your logical side of the brain to override the emotional brain. Your psychotherapist can guide you in this aspect through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, making it easier to deal with future stressful situations.
Final words
Emotional distresses are caused by cognitive distortions that are quite innate to an individual. Even so, it is possible to deal with it healthily, which allows you to live a fuller life. Your mind has so much power to break free from negativity and fantasies and stay rational in the face of adversity.
With the help of dedicated psychotherapists and some much-needed self-belief, you can easily overcome mental and emotional issues leading to anxiety, panic attacks, and depression. As the famous Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung once said, “Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” So take charge of your life today!
