Errors in logic are simply thinking errors (cognitive distortions). By identifying these thinking errors and testing them as hypotheses rather then facts, we can investigate and challenge these negative thoughts to see if they are indeed logical. Alternative ways of thinking can be substituted for the original negative automatic thoughts which are more balanced, and reflect the persons experience more accurately.
Here are a list of the 10 most common cognitive distortions that form the basis of all depression:
1) Dichotomous reasoning (black or white/all-or-nothing)
2) Overgeneralisation
3) Selective abstraction (mental filter)
4) Discounting the positive
5) Arbitrary inference (jumping to conclusions)
6) Magnification/minimisation (binocular trick)
7) Emotional Reasoning
8) Shoulds ("musturbation")
9) Global judgements
10) Personalisation
Over the next 10 posts I will be looking at each of these individual thinking errors and explaining what they mean so we can look at ways to challenge them. This should help to stop some of your negative thoughts as you will begin to see that a lot of them are completely illogical, and hopefully this will begin to make you feel better!
Friday, 26 August 2011
Tuesday, 23 August 2011
YouthNoise
I just thought I would let you know of a really cool website I came across on the internet. It is called www.youthnoise.com and it is an American website that aims to "empower young leaders to act for the causes they care about locally and nationally". I have very recently become one of their featured bloggers and I wrote my first post the other day! I think it is a great idea to have a specific place for young people to blog about the things they are interested in and it is a place where us young people feel that we have a voice and are actually listened to; there is also a real sense of community even though the users are worldwide! I have read a number of the blog posts and I have been able to search for blogs on things that interest me, and so far I have been really impressed!
Wednesday, 17 August 2011
Thursday, 4 August 2011
Create a Continuum
Many teens (including me) have an unrealistic view of themselves, or situations that they are in. They usually have extreme, black and white views, magnifying every detail of the problem and they can't recognise anything in-between. This is where creating a 'continuum' can be an extremely helpful tool in distinguishing how 'bad' something is, or to what extent it is 'bad'. It can help you to review your understanding of worth, goodness or weakness.
To explain what exactly a 'continuum' is, lets take an example of a teenager with severe feelings of guilt, and they believe themselves to be the most evil person in the world.
They should begin with a straight line representing the extremes of good and evil - good at one end, and evil at the other. Then, they should place an X on the line representing where they see themselves and it is likely that they would put the X nearest the evil end. They should contemplate their own, personal evil attributes, before putting other evil characters on the continuum. Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin may be interesting individuals to consider. The teenager will then probably find themselves having to extend the line to accommodate the newcomers. Then they should fill in the extreme good end of the scale, writing people down that they admire, who they know. Then what about placing other more famous people, such as Mother Teresa. They'll probably need to extend the continuum in the opposite direction. Then finally they should put down other friends and acquaintances in the continuum as well.
At the end of this process, the teenager may still not like themselves very much, but at least they should begin to question their assumptions of being the most evil person on the planet.
You can also use this method to asses how bad situations actually are that you find extremely difficult and it will help you to put many things in your life into perspective. Don't just try to visualise it in your head, writing it down is much more effective as you will see the full picture and it will help you to view things in context.
To explain what exactly a 'continuum' is, lets take an example of a teenager with severe feelings of guilt, and they believe themselves to be the most evil person in the world.
They should begin with a straight line representing the extremes of good and evil - good at one end, and evil at the other. Then, they should place an X on the line representing where they see themselves and it is likely that they would put the X nearest the evil end. They should contemplate their own, personal evil attributes, before putting other evil characters on the continuum. Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin may be interesting individuals to consider. The teenager will then probably find themselves having to extend the line to accommodate the newcomers. Then they should fill in the extreme good end of the scale, writing people down that they admire, who they know. Then what about placing other more famous people, such as Mother Teresa. They'll probably need to extend the continuum in the opposite direction. Then finally they should put down other friends and acquaintances in the continuum as well.
At the end of this process, the teenager may still not like themselves very much, but at least they should begin to question their assumptions of being the most evil person on the planet.
You can also use this method to asses how bad situations actually are that you find extremely difficult and it will help you to put many things in your life into perspective. Don't just try to visualise it in your head, writing it down is much more effective as you will see the full picture and it will help you to view things in context.
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