IDENTIFYING DISTORTED PERCEPTIONS
Distortion of perceptions is a basic
problem in depression, anxiety and in any addictive disorder. We experience
denial, in which we can’t see or understand things that are obvious to other
people. We minimize or exaggerate our problems or other parts of our lives. We
misinterpret other people’s words and actions, and we see ourselves as doing
worse than we really are. To solve a problem, the first step must be to see it
clearly. Even if we know where we want to go and have a map, we can’t get
started until we know where we are, and distorted perceptions make that
impossible. This exercise will help you see how problems with depression and
anxiety distort our perceptions of ourselves, other people, and our situations,
and give you strategies to overcome these distortions.
1. Denial/Minimization. You don’t see or remember your destructive
behavior and its negative results, or you don’t admit to yourself how serious
they are. You think you may have missed work 3 or 4 times in the last two
months, when it’s actually 12 times. You blame your arguments with your partner
on their unreasonableness without taking your share of the responsibility. You
don’t admit that medical problems may be linked to your drinking or drug use, or
that your financial problems are tied to your gambling. You may exaggerate the
importance of things (such as your goof-up or someone else's achievement), or
you inappropriately shrink things until they appear tiny (your own desirable
qualities or the other fellow's imperfections).
Ways
I see this in my life:
2. All or nothing thinking.
You see things as completely good or bad, perfect or awful, black or
white. Events are wonderful or disastrous; you feel like a genius or an idiot;
nothing is just okay or average.
Ways
I see this in my life:
3. Overgeneralization.
If one thing goes wrong, you feel it’s a terrible day; if you make one
mistake, you feel you are a mistake. You see a single negative event as a
never-ending pattern of defeat. You tend to say things like “you always” or
“you never.”
Ways
I see this in my life:
4. Negative focus. You exaggerate the negative details in your thinking and overlook
the good things, seeing the thorns but not the roses. You reject positive
experiences by insisting they "don't count" for some reason or other.
You maintain a negative belief that is contradicted by your everyday
experiences. This feeds self-pity, which is an excuse to act out.
Ways
I see this in my life:
5. Predicting without facts.
You leap to conclusions about the future, usually negative, when you
don’t really know what will happen. You put definite interpretations on events
or actions that don’t have clear meanings, such as thinking people are mad at
you when they don’t act happy, and you don’t check to see whether your interpretations
are right before you believe them.
Ways
I see this in my life:
6. Emotional reasoning.
You assume that your emotions or suspicions reflect the way things
really are: “If I feel it, therefore it must be true.”
Ways
I see this in my life:
7. Should statements.
You guide your actions by what you think you should or shouldn’t do, and
beat yourself up with guilt and shame when you fail to meet those standards.
You may also do this to other people, expecting them to do what you think they
should do and getting angry, frustrated and judgmental if they do something
else, even if you never told them what your expectations were.
Ways
I see this in my life:
8. Judgment and labeling.
You judge yourself and other people instead of your actions or their
actions. If you lose at something, you call yourself a loser. If someone fails,
you call him/her a failure.
Ways
I see this in my life:
9. Taking things personally.
You see other people’s actions as being aimed at you, and you feel
responsible for things you don’t control.
Ways
I see this in my life:
STRATEGIES
FOR OVERCOMING DISTORTED PERCEPTIONS
·
When you feel upset
about a situation, talk with your therapist or another trusted friend or family
member who isn’t emotionally involved. Tell them what happened, sticking to
what you actually saw and heard, not what you believe others were thinking or
feeling or what you think they did out of your sight. Ask your therapist or
friend what he/she thinks, and share your thoughts and feelings. Ask him/her to
let you know if it seems that you’re making one of the preceding mistakes. Try
this and describe what happened.
·
When you feel upset,
take a piece of paper and draw five columns.
- In
column one, name the situation—what happened.
- In
column two, list your emotions (e.g., anger, fear, despair, worry,
confusion, embarrassment, shame), and rate the strength of each emotion on
a 10-point scale, with 10 being the most intense.
- In
column three, write down what you are thinking about the situation. Now
review the distortions described previously.
- In
column four, write a nondistorted, reasonable replacement thought that you
believe is probably true for each distorted thought listed in column two.
Think about this thought for a few moments.
- In
column five, list your emotions as they are now, in the same way you did
in column two.
How have your
emotions changed, and how will your reaction to the situation be different
because you used this strategy?
·
Be sure to bring
this handout back to your next session with your therapist, and be prepared to
talk about your thoughts and feelings about the exercise.
additional reading
Websites:
·
You Are What You
Think: http://depression.about.com/cs/psychotherapy/a/cognitive.htm
·
The Cognitive Model
of Anxiety:
http://www.habitsmart.com/anx.html
Books:
- Feeling Good: The New Mood Therapy, by David Burns, MD:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0380810336/ref=pd_sim_b_1/103-0292783-9992618?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=283155