Here are 15 styles of distorted thinking, and if you can identify with any one of these thought processes, it is time to change your thinking. At the ‘Sexual & Mental Health Clinic’, Avis Hospital, we can help you do so.

Filtering

You take the negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation.

Polarized Thinking

Things are black or white, good or bad. You have to be perfect or you’re a failure. There is no middle ground.

Overgeneralization

You come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or piece of evidence. If something bad happens once, you expect it to happen over and over again.

Mind Reading

Without their saying so, you know what people are feeling and why they act the way they do. In particular, you are able to define how people are feeling towards you.

Catastrophizing

You expect disaster, you notice or hear about a problem and start “What if’s. What if tragedy strikes? What if it happens to you?”

Personalization

Thinking that everything people do or say is some kind of reaction to you. You also compare yourself to others, trying to determine who’s smarter, better looking, etc.

Control Fallacies

If you feel externally controlled, you see yourself as helpless, a victim of fate. The fallacy of internal control has you responsible for the pain and happiness of everyone around you.

Fallacy of Fairness

You feel resentful because you think you know what’s fair but other people won’t agree with you.

Blaming

You hold other people responsible for your pain, or take the other track and blame yourself for every problem or reversal.

Should

You have a list of ironclad rules about how you and other people should act. People who break the rules anger you and you feel guilty if you violate the rules.

Emotional Reasoning

You believe that what you feel must be true-automatically. If you feel stupid or boring, then you must be stupid and boring.

Fallacy of Change

You expect that other people will change to suit you if you just pressure or cajole them enough. You need to change people because your hope for happiness seem to depend entirely on them.

Global Labeling

You generalize one or two qualities into a negative global judgment.

Being Right

You are continually on trial to prove that your opinions and actions are correct. Being wrong is unthinkable and you will go to any length to demonstrate your rightness.

Heaven’s Reward Fallacy

You expect all your sacrifice and self-denial to pay off, as if there were someone keeping score. You feel bitter when the reward doesn’t come.

Dr. Sharmila Majumdar