cbt tool
thought record sheet

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) identifies several common patterns of distorted thinking, known as cognitive distortions. These distortions can contribute to negative emotions and behaviors. Here's a list along with explanations:

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1. All-or-Nothing Thinking (Black-and-White Thinking): Seeing things in extreme categories with no middle ground. For example, if something isn't perfect, it's seen as a total failure.
    

2. Overgeneralization: Drawing broad conclusions based on limited evidence. For instance, if one thing goes wrong, assuming everything will go wrong.
    

3. Mental Filter: Focusing exclusively on negative details while ignoring positive aspects of a situation. It's like viewing the world through a negative lens.
    

4. Disqualifying the Positive: Rejecting positive experiences by insisting they "don't count" for some reason or another. For instance, dismissing compliments as insincere.
    

5. Jumping to Conclusions:

   • Mind Reading: Assuming you know what others are thinking without enough evidence.

   • Fortune Telling: Predicting future events negatively without considering other possible outcomes.
      

6. Magnification and Minimization: Exaggerating the importance of negative events and minimizing the significance of positive events. This often involves magnifying one's faults while downplaying one's strengths.
    

7. Emotional Reasoning: Believing that feelings are facts. For example, "I feel stupid, so I must be stupid."
    

8. Should Statements: Using "should," "ought," or "must" statements that impose unrealistic expectations on oneself or others. This often leads to guilt, frustration, and resentment.
    

9. Labeling and Mislabeling: Applying negative labels to oneself or others based on specific behaviors, instead of recognizing the complexity of human nature. For instance, instead of saying "I made a mistake," saying "I'm a failure."
    

10. Personalization: Taking responsibility for events that are outside of one's control or assigning blame to oneself for negative outcomes that aren't actually one's fault.

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Recognizing and challenging these cognitive distortions are central to the cognitive restructuring process in CBT. By learning to identify and correct these patterns of thinking, individuals can develop more balanced and accurate perceptions of themselves, others, and the world around them, leading to improved emotional well-being and more adaptive behaviors.