“I already messed up my plan by eating a piece of cake, so I might as well start my diet over again on Monday!” “I have a really bad headache. Could this be a brain tumor?!” “My coworker never says hello when I pass her in the hallway. She must hate me!”

What do all of these thoughts have in common? They are good examples of cognitive distortions – aka “thinking traps” – that we all fall into at times. You may notice that the thoughts above are not very rational, but irrational or not, our thoughts affect how we feel and how we ultimately behave. We have a tendency believe that our thoughts are completely rational and true in the moment, when in reality they are just thoughts. Even when a thought is inaccurate, unhelpful, and downright mean, we can act like the most aggressive of defense attorneys when it comes to believing our automatic negative thoughts (e.g., “See – I knew I was worthless. I can’t do anything right!”).

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT), first introduced by psychologist Aaron Beck in the 1960s, is a type of psychotherapy that has a robust evidence base for helping people with a broad range of mental health concerns, including depression, anxiety, and insomnia, among others. Cognitive-behavioral theory posits that our mood and the way we feel is impacted by our thoughts and behaviors. CBT therefore involves efforts to change thinking patterns, and one of the strategies for doing this is identifying cognitive distortions and replacing them with new, more helpful thoughts. Check out the five common thinking traps below to help you identify potential traps in your own thoughts, as well as what you might think instead. 

All-Or-Nothing Thinking

This thinking style is often termed as black and white or dichotomous thinking and is one of the most common thinking traps. All-or-nothing thinking involves thinking in extremes. The presentation was either a total success or a complete failure. You are either great at your job or you are “horrible.” The antidote to this thinking trap is looking for the shades of gray or being more flexible in your interpretation of situations.

• Example: “I only have 20 minutes to exercise today, so I just won’t work out at all since I don’t have my usual hour.”
• Replace this with: “Something is always better than nothing. It is better to exercise for 20 minutes than 0 minutes.”

Catastrophizing

This thinking trap involves focusing on the worst possible outcome of a situation, and not on the most likely or probable outcome. What’s the solution for catastrophizing? DE-catastrophizing! Once you’ve assessed the worst-case scenario, ask yourself what the realistic odds are that your worst fear will come true. Then, take a look at other possible outcomes, and consider how you would cope even if the worst happened. We tend to underestimate our ability to handle even the most challenging of situations!

• Example: “I haven’t heard from my partner in 3 hours – he could be dead!”
• Replace this with: “He is probably just busy at work. There have been many times in the past that I worried when I didn’t hear from him, but nothing horrible ever happened.”

Emotional Reasoning

This thinking error involves seeing our feelings or emotions as evidence for the “truth,” regardless of the objective evidence. But just because you feel useless/like an imposter/stupid at times, does not mean that you really are those things. So how do we break free of emotional reasoning? We must always remember that feelings are not facts and tap into our logical reasoning skills by examining the objective evidence for and against our automatic negative thoughts.

• Example: “I feel really anxious on this plane ride, so I think something bad is about to happen.”
• Replace this with: “Feelings are not facts. I have been on many plane rides in the past and nothing bad has ever happened. The odds of being in a plane crash are less than one in 10 million. I can accept my feelings of anxiety without believing something awful will happen.”

Mind Reading

Ever jumped to the conclusion that someone just doesn’t like you? Mind reading is assuming that someone is thinking something negative about you without having any definitive evidence, which often leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy when the other person picks up on your odd behavior (after all, you have been acting like they didn’t like you!). What can we do once we recognize this thinking trap? Realize that no one can read minds and we can never really know what others are thinking unless they tell us.

• Example: “My boss hasn’t responded to my second email requesting information. She must think I am so annoying! I am probably her least favorite employee.”
• Replace this with: “She has been especially busy lately and is probably having to prioritize all of the items on her to-do list. I can think of many examples of times when my boss was very responsive to me in the past, and there is no reason to believe that she does not like me.”

Overgeneralization

When we encounter difficult situations, we can fall victim to overgeneralizing when we assume that it’s going to happen again every time, or that a single negative event is actually part of a series of unending negative events. If you find yourself thinking “Why does this always happen to me?” or “How typical – I’m just an unlucky person,” you may be caught up in the thinking trap of overgeneralization. We can overcome this error by catching ourselves using terms like “always,” “never,” “everybody,” and “nobody” and purposefully looking for any exceptions to the statement.

• Example: “That date was horrible! I am a terrible dater who will never find love.”
• Replace this with: “I am probably overgeneralizing. I’ve been on some fun dates, so this doesn’t happen every single time, and it’s very possible that it won’t happen next time either.”