![]() ![]() You might see your own patterns of thinking reflected here or they may describe someone you know. Here are 10 examples of cognitive distortions. In these cases, distorted thinking can lead to chronic depression, anxiety and behavioral problems such as substance abuse. For others, cognitive distortions are a pattern of thinking that interferes with their lives and relationships. We briefly reason that we’re bad at whatever the test was on instead of realizing we need to study more. For some of us, distorted thinking is a momentary blip. Negativity is often the defining characteristic. Use of this website in no way constitutes professional service or advice.A cognitive distortion can be defined as faulty or inaccurate thinking, perception, or belief. By continually spotting fortune telling when it arises, and by finding more effective ways of making sense of unknown future situations, you will believe these dire predictions less and less, helping you to feel more confident about the future.Īll material provided on this website is for informational purposes only. Direct consultation of a qualified provider should be sought for any specific questions or problems. Then list the things you have control over that you could use to influence the situation in your favor.Īre there equally plausible possible outcomes? Find three positive outcomes, and write out how these other outcomes might actually occur.Īfter considering these different perspectives, you may find that you no longer believe the fortune telling as much. How difficult would it be for your predicted outcome to occur? What are all of the things that would have to go wrong for this prediction to come true? Now, list as many things that might happen that would prevent this prediction from happening. In similar situations, what kinds of predictions have you made, and how do the situations actually turn out? How might your track record inform the prediction you’re making now? Are there benefits to making a negative prediction? Does it prepare you for a difficult task? How about costs? Does your prediction instead make you feel powerless or demoralized? Overly anxious? Given the cost-benefit analysis, is your fortune telling more helpful or harmful?Ĭonsider your track record for making similar predictions. We may be able to come up with lots of reasons that support the fortune telling if we feel particularly bad about it, but would this evidence hold up in court? And consider why it would not be as convincing to someone else.Įxamine the function of your worry. What is the evidence for and against your prediction? It is important to examine the actual evidence, and even more importantly, the quality of that evidence. Do you know your competitors? Do you know their experience? Do you know whether their goals match up with the job better than yours? Do you know if their personality was a better fit with the interviewer? Are our salary expectations less consistent with those of the other applicants? Usually we have very little idea of any of these factors, so to assume we will not get the job, is to do so without considering the majority of the evidence.īelow are some different ways of thinking about fortune telling when you recognize it in your own mind: Although we have some sense of our performance in a job interview, there are numerous factors that go into whether we will actually get the job. For example, thinking “I’m not going to get the job,” is a great example of fortune telling. However, fortune telling is not an accurate assessment based on evidence, it is a global assumption we make without considering the real odds. Of course, some events do have the potential for danger, and we need to be able to assess the risk in those situations. Predicting the future becomes the cognitive distortion fortune telling, when we assumethat some event or events will end badly for us, that we will fail at something or we will be in danger, more as an assumption rather than an educated guess. To function as an adult, we make these sorts of predictions constantly, and in this way our ability to predict the future is a necessary skill. Or when we board a plane headed for San Francisco, we expect that when we get off the plane we will be in San Francisco. For instance, predicting that if we drink the expired, foul-smelling milk, we will probably be sick. ![]() I mean the natural ability we develop to predict that one outcome is likely given a certain set of circumstances. We have to be able to predict the future to some degree. It is linked to anxiety and depression, and is one of the most common cognitive distortions that arise during the course of cognitive restructuring. Fortune telling is a cognitive distortion in which you predict a negative outcome without realistically considering the actual odds of that outcome. ![]()
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