Cognitive distortions are distorted thinking patterns that cause negative feelings, which in turn can worsen an addiction. How we look at events or situations plays a significant role in how we feel and behave. This is particularly true when it comes to alcohol and drug addiction.
By refuting the negative thinking over and over again, it will slowly diminish overtime and be automatically replaced by more rational, balanced thinking. Here are a few of the most common cognitive errors identified by Dr David Burns, a pioneer in CBT.
1. All-or-Nothing Thinking.
All-or-nothing thinking is sometimes called “black and white thinking,” because of the tendency to see everything in terms of absolutes. All-or-nothing thinking can easily lead to relapse, if one slip is made and the recovering addict feels they have failed, so they stop trying.
2. Polarized Thinking (or “Black and White” Thinking).
This type of thinking is common in addiction and a danger for your recovery. Realize that you will make mistakes and you won’t be perfect at everything. Sometimes situations and outcomes won’t turn out like you expected. That’s OK. Not all is lost.
3. Overgeneralization.
In this cognitive distortion, we come to a general conclusion based on a single incident or a single piece of evidence. If something bad happens only once, we expect it to happen over and over again. A person may see a single, unpleasant event as part of a never-ending pattern of defeat.
4. Jumping to Conclusions.
Jumping to conclusions can fall into two types, mind reading, where you think someone else is going to react in a particular way, or you believe they are thinking things that they aren’t thinking or haven’t said, and fortune-telling, when you predict that events will unfold in a particular way, often to avoid trying something difficult.
5. Catastrophizing.
It’s not uncommon for anyone who struggles with drug addiction to either discount (or minimize) positive things and magnify the negative ones. For example, if you never give yourself credit for the lengthy periods of time you’ve stayed clean and focus instead on the two times you relapsed in the past 5 years, it will be difficult to believe in yourself or find the motivation to work your program.
If you do relapse again, you may end up catastrophizing the event, which is another form of magnification. For example, “I had a drink last night; now I’m definitely going to lose my job this time, get evicted from my home, and end up living on the streets…!” Can you see how this type of irrational thinking will make it easy to believe that there’s absolutely no reason to bother with drug rehab treatment.
6. Personalization and blame.
Personalization occurs when you hold yourself personally responsible for an event that isn’t entirely under your control. When a woman received a note that her child was having difficulties at school, she told herself, ‘this shows what a bad mother I am,’ instead of trying to pinpoint the cause of the problem so that she could be helpful to her child. When another woman’s husband beat her, she told herself, lf only I were better in bed, he wouldn’t beat me.’ Personalization leads to guilt, shame, and feelings of inadequacy. Same people do the opposite. They blame other people or their circumstances for their problems, and they overlook ways that they might be contributing to the problem: ‘The reason my marriage is so lousy is because my spouse is totally unreasonable.’ Blame usually doesn’t work very well because other people will resent being a scapegoat and they will just toss the blame right back in your lap. It’s like the game of hot potato – no one wants to get stuck with it
7. Shoulds.
We have a list of ironclad rules about how others and we should behave. People who break the rules make us angry, and we feel guilty when we violate these rules. A person may often believe they are trying to motivate themselves with shoulds and shouldn’ts, as if they have to be punished before they can do anything.
8. Emotional Reasoning.
You assume that your negative emotions necessarily reflect the way things really are: ‘I feel terrified about going on airplanes. It must be very dangerous to fly.’ Or ‘I feel guilty. I must be a rotten person.’ Or ‘I feel angry. This proves I’m being treated unfairly.’ Or I feel so inferior. This means I’m a second-rate person.’ Or ‘I feel hopeless. I must really be hopeless.’
9. Labeling.
Labelling is a cognitive distortion that involves making a judgement about yourself or someone else as a person, rather than seeing their behavior as something the person did that does not define them as an individual.
10. Mental filter.
We take the negative details and magnify them while filtering out all positive aspects of a situation. For instance, a person may pick out a single, unpleasant detail and dwell on it exclusively so that their vision of reality becomes darkened or distorted.
Getting rid of these cognitive distortions takes time and practice. Over time, you won’t fall into these mental traps and rational thoughts will happen automatically.
If you or someone you know is struggling with addiction, take the first step towards recovery by downloading the free Addicaid app for iPhone + Android and join the recovery community today.