Distorted Thinking & how Cognitive Behavioural Therapy can help

I imagine we have all been there, that little voice in our head going round and round promoting negativity by comparing or putting ourselves down etc. So why do we do it what makes us become an internal bully within, would we speak to anyone else the way we speak to ourselves?

No, of course not, however we can be so unkind in how we view ourselves and in doing so this will have a knock-on effect on our self-esteem, confidence, and self-worth.

In an ideal world as children, we could possibly grow up wearing rose tinted glasses as everything feels happy and positive, but then life hits us as we get older and BANG, the world no longer feels that safe happy place we thought it was. Unfortunately, this can also happen in childhood if we have had to endure some early trauma in our lives.

But let's focus on adulthood and as we continue through life, we may endure major setbacks such as illness, bereavement, redundancy, heart break etc. By experiencing these tragedies, it can make us feel quite vulnerable and our thinking patterns change. The world no longer feels that safe place but one of fear and anxiety

We then begin to look at other smaller issues we may previously have coped with now seeming out of our control. Every problem seems huge in our minds and no longer manageable.

We may begin to catastrophize by taking a problem that starts off quite small and blowing it up in to something huge and impossible to deal with, this is classed as a form of distorted thinking.

Another classic distorted way of thinking is fortune telling, this is where we are convinced, we know the future outcome of most situations without actually looking at the evidence and odds of that situation. Fortune telling will often encourage us to see the future in the worst possible light. This is just a couple of the distorted thinking habits though there are many more which I will discuss in future blogs.

So how do we stop this process?

We do so through a form of therapy called CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy). CBT teaches us to be more aware of our thoughts, behaviours and feelings. In doing so we are able to change them to a healthier form thus being able to manage our problems from a more realistic viewpoint, this is paramount as it is our negative thinking patterns that make us feel trapped and unable to cope.

In CBT we are trained in being able to step back from our thoughts and focus on what is factional/rational rather than what is an opinion that may be biased into a negative form.

We do this process by using thought records and various other techniques so we are more aware of the different distorted thinking styles we may be using; this allows us to break the cycle of unhealthy thinking.

This is just one of the many techniques used in CBT, others include exposure work, goal setting etc.

The therapist will give weekly homework that has been discussed and agreed at each session. This is to encourage work to take place outside of the therapy session to assist the client in moving on. The goals set are ones that are achievable so the client does not feel set up to fail.

This is just a very brief description of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy which has been known to assist with anxiety, depression, OCD, phobias etc. to name a few.

Clare-Marie Keel, June 2024