COGNITIVE DISTORTIONS HANDOUT-THERAPY WORKSHEET
By
HappierTherapy
Author bio
The Happier Therapy editorial team is made up of Masters and PhD counselling psychologists. Each worksheet is created by a team member with exposure to and experience in the subject matter. The worksheet then gets reviewed by a more senior editorial member. This is someone with extensive knowledge of the subject matter and highly cited published material.
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Cognitive Distortions are the dysfunctional/ or irrational thoughts that influence our thoughts, emotions and actions.
Cognitive distortions increase misery, fuel anxiety, and make us feel bad about ourselves.
What Are The Theories Behind This Worksheet?
Everyone experiences different forms of cognitive distortions. However, extreme forms of cognitive distortions can be extremely harmful to yourself and especially your mental well-being.
The main cognitive distortions are as follows:
- All-or-Nothing Thinking
You see things in black and white/ or all-or-nothing categories.
If your performance falls short of perfect, you see yourself as an absolute failure.
- Overgeneralization
Drawing flawed conclusions based on one or a few experiences and perceiving them as a never-ending pattern of defeat.
You assume you will fail in a particular subject only because you did not do well in the exam.
- Mental Filter
You pick out a single negative detail and dwell on it exclusively.
Focusing on one negative experience and ignoring all of the positive experiences.
- Catastrophizing
Blowing things out of proportion by exaggerating the implications of a setback or mistake.
This blemish on my skin is probably skin cancer, I’ll be dead soon.
- Mind Reading/ Jumping to Conclusions
Having negative interpretations of events without facts or logic that support your deductions.
The doctor is going to tell me I definitely have cancer.
- Emotional Reasoning
You assume that your emotions reflect reality and reason conclusions from how you feel. “I feel it, therefore it must be.”
Meeting a new group of people and feeling like you don’t belong thus, you convince yourself “I don’t belong.”
- “Should” Statements
The irrational belief that things should be in a certain way.
Criticizing yourself by putting a lot of pressure on yourself or in different situations.
I should be losing weight if I want to feel pretty.
- Labelling
Assigning a person’s action to their disposition rather than looking at the situation.
- Personalization and Blame
Blaming yourself for something you are not entirely responsible for.
Our team lost because of me.
How Will This Worksheet Help You?
This worksheet is intended to readjust dysfunctional/ irrational thoughts, improve moods, foster positive behaviour and establish a greater sense of well-being.
Use this worksheet to write down every time you encounter dysfunctional irrational thoughts.
How Should You Use This Worksheet?
This worksheet can be used as a way of keeping track of your thoughts throughout the day. e.
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References
1.-
Havard Health Publishing. (© 2022). How to recognize and tame your cognitive distortions. Available at: https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/how-to-recognize-and-tame-your-cognitive-distortions-202205042738. [Accessed on October 25, 2022]
2.-
Milgram L. Sharon (No Date).Workbook II: Understanding Cognitive Distortions & Imposter Fears. Available at: https://gs.emory.edu/_includes/documents/sections/professional-development/nih/rtp_unit-2-workbook.pdf. [Accessed on October 25, 2022]
