All Or Nothing Thinking A Cognitive Distortion That Leads To Anxiety
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 7 มิ.ย. 2024
- All or nothing thinking (also known as black and white thinking) is a negative thinking pattern that's common in people with depression or anxiety. In this video I’ll explain what it is, how it makes common mental health issues worse and share several ways to overcome it.
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🔵 CHAPTERS
0:00 What is all or nothing thinking (with examples)
1:32 Step 1: Notice how you're thinking
2:19 Step 2: Look for the shades of grey
3:07 Step 3:Name the emotion
3:31 Step 4: Use the word 'and'
4:09 Step 5: Thoughts are not facts
4:51 Step 6: Practice self-compassion
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☐ Cognitive Behavioural Therapist Basics and Beyond by Judith Beck. Please click on the link to buy from Amazon: amzn.to/3RfTN2f
🔵 Step one. What can you do about all or nothing thinking? The first step is to notice how you’re thinking. Look out for extreme words such as ‘always’, and ’never’ which lead directly to all or nothing thinking. For example: I always mess things up or I always lose.Catching yourself using all-or-nothing language takes some practice because thinking this way can be so automatic. When you notice all or nothing thinking it you might be useful to say to yourself ‘thats all or nothing thinking’. Labelling your thinking in this way can create a sense of separation from your thoughts.
🔵 Step two, look for the shades of grey. For example, Matt believes he is a total failure because he hasn’t got a job. He is looking at himself in only two categories ‘success or failure’ which makes him feel depressed and want to give up. It would be really helpful if Matt could look for the shades of grey. He might do this by asking a series of socratic questions.
🔵 Step three, name the emotion. Instead of saying “I’m a complete failure” it would be more realistic and helpful to say, “I feel anxious about my career”. Identifying emotions keeps you grounded in reality. It also gives you the opportunity to problem solve.
🔵 Step 4. Use the word ‘and’. Instead or saying “I’m a bad person” you might say “I have a lot of great qualities and sometimes I make mistakes” Instead of saying “the interview was a total disaster” you might say “I answered some questions well and some questions not so well”. This avoids absolute black and white language.
🔵 Step 5, thoughts are not facts. Just because you think something doesn’t mean its true. Did you know the brain actually has a bias to think negatively? It’s called the negativity bias. In order to survive, our ancestors were continually scanning their surrounding for threats. From an evolutionary perspective its understood that the tendency to dwell on the negative is simply one way your brain tries to keep you safe.
🔵 Step six, practice self compassion. All or nothing tends to be very harsh and self-critical. Talking to yourself in the way can actually trigger your threat system and activate your fight or flight response. Fortunately, you can dampen the threat response by practicing self-compassion.
🔵 HELPFUL EXERCISES
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☐ Soothing Rhythm Breathing: • Soothing Rhythm Breath...
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Teresa Lewis is the founder and Director of Lewis Psychology and a Senior Accredited psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP Snr. Accred). Qualified in 1995, Teresa has been providing counselling and psychotherapy treatment for nearly 30 years. Teresa holds a masters degree in counselling and psychotherapy and is a qualified EMDR Practitioner having completed training accredited with EMDR Europe. Teresa is also a qualified adult educator and an accredited Mindfulness teacher As a recognised expert in her field Teresa is frequently asked to conduct editorial reviews and endorse counselling and psychotherapy books for international publishing houses.
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Thank you very much for this.
Just came across your page...I enjoy the simplicity of your explanation as well as the examples...Thanks
Thank you Daniel. Best wishes, Teresa.
Thanks for this video, I will try to apply the question techniques myself. I follow a study at University and my exams are in 3 weeks, but what happens to me all the time is that I have a pretty good study schedule in the beginning of a course. Then later, I have a few moments when I start getting behind with the study material which leads me to the all or nothing thinking. Then it's like: "well we are behind now, so we failed. This course is over now". Doesn't make any sense obviously but its very hard to get out of this thinking for me, because the study backlog starts getting worse with everyday that I don't study, making me feel even more overwhelmed by what I still need to do, leading to even more all or nothing thinking. At least I do know that it doesn't make sense and that on the first few off-days I'm probably even ahead still of my peers, but there seems to be quite a difference in knowing that your thinking doesn't make sense and actually doing something about it and getting yourself back to work.
Thank you for sharing your insights Pim. It great that you can recognise you are engaged in all or nothing thinking, thats the hardest step. Yes, apply the questioning techniques and let me know how you get on. I wish you all the best with you exams. Best wishes, Teresa
Great news…. Very very useful stuff…. Waiting to hear from you….
Thanks for your kind comment. Wishing you well.
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Yes, I've been known to think this way. Don't get mad get everything was my mindset
Yes, that's right. Best wishes, Teresa.
I always chose to medically care about my mom as she was asthmatic for 10 years. Her health issues took all of my attention. I indulged myself in studying every piece of medical papers I could to save her. I never competed with my school mates as they had better resources than I did. I should have been a bit less caring about mom and i wish I had competed with my class mates. I knew I was better than they were. What I lacked was resources.
I'm sorry to hear that Anurag. Wishing you all the best, Teresa.
Today i realised that it was my 10th grade when I first used all or nothing thinking. And i practiced it without knowing it and its consequences. I'll soon buy you a cup of coffee. I've seen that link. Thanks for making us conscious about our wrong thoughts, which we mistakenly assume as facts.
Lewis, it seems to me dichotomous thinking is a category and not a distortion in itself, but it is manifested from other distortions; such as, labeling, overgeneralizing, or jumping to conclusions, etc. Can you please comment ?
Thanks for your comment. Black and white thinking (also known as absolutistic, dichotomous thinking) is on Beck's original list of cognitive distortions. I can certainly see how many of the cognitive distortions are related i.e. all or nothing thinking can be a form of catastrophising, overgeneralising etc. Best wishes, Teresa.
@@LewisPsychology Ty for responding
I wish I could pay you some pennies.
Thanks for your kind comment. Best wishes.
I can't afford you. but you content is really well prepared and shows your expertise you've earned since 1995. It is pleasure finding you free of cost in videos.
@@Anurag_Saxena thank you .