1) Dichotomous Reasoning (black-or-white/all-or-nothing thinking)

Dichotomous reasoning refers to your tendency to evaluate your personal qualities in extreme, black-or-white/mutually exclusive categories. It is the most common kind of negative thinking, and is the main cause of many problems including anxiety and depression. For example, a straight-A student may believe that they are a total failure because they received a B on an exam. This all-or-nothing thinking forms the basis for perfectionism. It causes you to fear any imperfection or mistake because you will then see yourself as a complete loser, and you will feel inadequate and worthless, leading to anxiety. It can cause depression because when you think you have to be perfect, you feel trapped by your own unrealistic standards.

This way of evaluating things is unrealistic, because hardly anything in life is either one way or the other. For example, no one is absolutely amazing or totally stupid, and no one is all good or all bad! Look at the floor of the room you are sitting in now. Is it perfectly clean? Or is every inch piled high with dust and dirt? Or is it partially clean? Absolutes do not exist in this universe. If you try to force your experiences into absolute categories, you will be constantly depressed because your perceptions will not conform to reality. You will set yourself up for shaming yourself endlessly because whatever you do will not measure up to your exaggerated expectations.

Examples: Automatic thought: I did that really badly, I might as well not bother at all
                Possible answer: The fact is, I didn't do it as well as I wanted to. That does not mean that it was no good at all, I can't expect to get everything 100% right. If I do, I'll never be satisfied.

Are you applying this kind of black-or-white thinking to yourself? Look for the shades of grey.

(Some of this has been taken from the book "Feeling Good, The New Mood Therapy" by David D. Burns)