Focusing only on the negative without seeing any of the positive or what is going well.
This is when we think our happiness depends on the actions of others. The fallacy of change also assumes that other people should change to suit us automatically and/or that it is fair to pressure them to change.
Labelling is an extreme form of overgeneralisation, it occurs when you attach a negative label about yourself or someone else rather than acknowledge it was just a single event or mistake.
If you overgeneralise you take one bad thing and you assume that everything will be awful after that.
Black and white thinking is very similar to the All Or Nothing Thinking Trap, it is thinking in extremes. Black or white. Really good or really bad; and not seeing all the possible outcomes in-between (or the “grey”)
Blaming is simply saying someone or something is responsible for something bad that happened to them.
This is when you tell yourself that you “should”, “ought”, or “must” do something, feel something or behave in a certain way.
All or nothing thinking is when you think if I can’t do it all perfectly, or I can’t fix it all at once, I might as well not even bother.
Mind reading is assuming people don’t like you or assuming that you know how they feel about you (and assuming it’s negative), without any real evidence.
This is the plague of social media. We look at others and compare ourselves unfairly to them.
Example: someone might say:”I will never be as good as Jane.”
Replace with:
“I am going to live my life and be true to my values. I’ll try to be a little bit better version of myself every day, always trying to live my best life, my way.”
Comparisons to others will always let you down. Our feeling of being less than constantly triggers us to compare what we don’t have with others. This channels self criticism, negativity and anxiety.
Despite a lack of evidence, we relate comments and actions back to ourselves. Criticism where it was not intended is a part of this pattern. As is having feelings hurt consistently by things that are not intended in that way.
This type of personalisation is closely linked with catastrophic thinking. However, in this case the negative conclusion is drawn that: “what is happening is not only awful…. but that I am to blame”.
In the emotional reasoning Thinking Trap something is believed true and real based only on a feeling.
This thinking trap is a little bit like catastrophising, but it’s more exaggerating the possibility of something bad happening, rather than completely believing it will happen.
This thinking trap involves focusing on the worst possible outcome of a situation, and not on the most likely or probable outcome.