What are Cognitive Distortions? — Transcript

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1. 0:00[Music]
2. 0:03When I was in school, I hated giving  presentations. They were just the worst type of assignment in my opinion.
3. 0:09I'd stumble over  my words, forget what I wanted to say, and  they just always felt like they went really poorly, but then I'd get pretty good grades
4. 0:17and I didn't ever understand how that  was happening. How would I feel like I
5. 0:21did so poorly but then I'd get good grades? Well, eventually I learned this is caused
6. 0:26by something called Cognitive Distortions. A cognitive distortion is a type of irrational
7. 0:31thought where you see things as a bit more  negative than they really are. Now cognitive
8. 0:37distortions are completely normal everyone  has them. It's just part of being human but
9. 0:42when they're too frequent or too intense they  can contribute to problems like depression
10. 0:47and anxiety. So today I want to tell you about  five different types of cognitive distortions.
11. 0:55The first cognitive distortion is called Emotional Reasoning.
12. 0:59This is when you feel something so intensely that you start to think it must  be true. For example, think of someone who
13. 1:06has a fear of flying. They know the fact that flying is safer than driving, but when
14. 1:10they take that first step onto a plane that  fear takes over and they start to think "Oh I
15. 1:14know this plane is gonna crash, I know it's  gonna crash." Of course, the feeling doesn't
16. 1:19have any bearing on the facts, but if you feel it strongly enough it'll start to seem true.
17. 1:27The next cognitive distortion is called  Disqualifying the Positive. This is when
18. 1:32you look at a situation with both good and bad aspects and you sort of push that good stuff aside
19. 1:37and you just focus on the bad stuff. So imagine you get a performance review at work
20. 1:42it says great job, great job, great job, needs improvement, great  job.
21. 1:47You look at that and all you see is needs improvement you forget about all the positive feedback.
22. 1:52Another good example, imagine you go on a first date everything is going well. You're getting along, you have a lot in common and then you say something really stupid.
23. 2:01you just  put your foot in your mouth, and you wish you could unsay it. Well, when you get home that night that's all you can focus on a stupid
24. 2:08thing that you said and you sort of forget that  you're getting along great and having fun. That's
25. 2:12Disqualifying the Positive, when you only focus  on a small negative aspect of some situation.
26. 2:21The next cognitive distortion is called  Mind-Reading this is when you make assumptions
27. 2:26about other people's thoughts or their intentions  or behaviors without really having enough evidence.
28. 2:31So imagine you give a friend a call, they don't  answer and you start thinking "oh I bet they picked
29. 2:37up the phone saw what was me put it back down" or  "I bet they're hanging out with someone else they
30. 2:41like more or maybe they just don't like me" and  that's mind-reading when you make assumptions
31. 2:46about why someone does something or what they're  thinking or feeling without really knowing.
32. 2:53the next cognitive distortion is called  All-or-Nothing Thinking. This is when you
33. 2:58see things and extremes nothing in between.  There either black or they're white. They're
34. 3:03good or they're bad. On a more personal level,  this might mean I'm beautiful or I'm hideous. I'm
35. 3:09brilliant or I'm a moron. I've got a great job  or I've got a terrible job. So for example, think
36. 3:14of someone who seems to have a pretty good life.  They've got a a good job, close friends, hobbies
37. 3:19they like, they're healthy, but the romantic  relationship is sort of on the rocks. Now,
38. 3:24most people might look at this life and think  like 'oh that's great they've got a good thing
39. 3:28going", but they look at their own life and  they think "my life's a mess I'm such a loser"
40. 3:33all because of that one thing. That's All or  Nothing Thinking, when you reduce something
41. 3:38to its extremes just seeing the black or the  white without seeing that grey in the middle.
42. 3:45The final cognitive distortion I'm going to talk about  today is called Catastrophizing. This is when you
43. 3:51only consider the worst possible explanations for  something, rather than the more likely explanations.
44. 3:56For example, imagine you're waiting for a family  member to get home from work. They're fifteen
45. 4:01minutes late and you start thinking "they must have  been in a car accident. Why else would they be late?"
46. 4:06When in reality just stuck at work for 15 minutes  or stuck in traffic, and that's catastrophizing.
47. 4:12You jump to the most drastic explanations without  considering what's more likely. Now that I look
48. 4:19back at my own experience giving presentations,  I can see how cognitive distortions played a
49. 4:24role. You know, my presentations, they weren't  perfect. I'd stumble over my words and forget
50. 4:28a few things, but it wasn't a big deal. In a 20  minute presentation, it might have been two
51. 4:33or three minutes that were a little choppy. Now the  good thing about cognitive distortions, is once you
52. 4:37learn to spot them you can start to challenge  them and by doing this you can change how you
53. 4:42think and you can change how you feel and in the  long run this will improve your mental health.
54. 4:48[Music]