Cognitive Distortions (Burns, 1989)
1. All or Nothing Thinking: You look at things in absolute, black and white
categories. For example. "I won't fit in" or "l won't know anyone at the party"
2. Mental Filter: You dwell on the negatives and ignore the positives. For
example, remembering only the person who didn 't acknowledge your hello as
opposed to remember the dozens of people who did respond kindly.
3. Overgeneralization: You view a negative event as never-ending pattem of
defeat. For example, "This always happens to me, nothing ever works out."
4. the positive: You insist that your accomplishments or positive
qualities don't count. For example, "I know I am going to get in trouble
because why else would my boss want to talk to me."
a) Mmd reading: You assume that people are reacting negatively to you.
b)fortune-telling: You predict that things will tum out badly.
6. Magnification or minimization: You blow things way out of proportion or
you shrink their importance. For example, "I was destroyed when those people
saw me ü•ip coming up the stairs."
7. Emotional Reasoning: You reason from how you feel: "I feel like an idiot,
so I must be one."
8. "Should" statements: You criticize yourself or other people with
"shoulds", shouldn'ts", and musts".
9. Labeling: Instead of saying, "I made a mistake," you tell yourself, "l am a
jerk", or a loser.
10. Blame: You blame yourself for something you weren't entirely responsible
for, or you blame other people and overlook ways that you contribute to a
problem. For example , "I let the conversation get awkward
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