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Cognitive distortions, as the name implies, occur when we change or twist information from the environment to correlate with our current belief. This belief could be wrong. However, when our brains learn a pattern or “rule,” it is incorporated into the psyche and we never think about it again.
It is common to experience two events at the same time that are actually coincidental, but believe that one causes the other. This becomes locked in, and this belief becomes our “truth.”
Children learn all sorts of misinformation through their experiences, what they hear, and how they are treated. If the experiences repeat, the brain recognizes a pattern and “locks it in.”
Our brains are actually trying to help us by noticing patterns and “skipping to the end.” If we’ve seen it before, why do we need to go through all the steps to arrive at the answer?
Sometimes the concepts we learn as a child (usually between birth and 6 years) work against us as an adult.
Sigmund Freud developed the first list of Cognitive Distortions or Ego Defense Mechanisms in 1894. This list as been modified and expanded over the years. However, the basic list includes these 10 cognitive distortions:
- All or Nothing Thinking
- Overgeneralizing
- Mental Filter
- Disqualifying the Positive
- Jumping to Conclusions: Mind Reading/Fortune Telling
- Magnification (Catastrophizing) and Minimization
- Emotional Reasoning
- Should/Must Statements
- Labeling
- Personalization