7) Emotional Reasoning

Emotional reasoning is using your feelings as a basis for your judgements and ignoring other factors. You take your emotions as evidence for the truth. For example: I feel so depressed, this must be the worst school to go to. This kind of reasoning is misleading as your feelings are determined by your thoughts and beliefs. If they are distorted (which is often the case) then your emotions will not be valid.

I understand that things feel so negative to you so you assume that they truly are, but have you ever thought about challenging the validity of these perceptions that create your feelings? Although you may feel that you will never be able to overcome your emotional reasoning habits, at least by reading this you have become aware of it and now you might start to ask yourself if your feelings are valid.

Automatic thought: If I feel it, it must be true

Possible answers: What are the reasons behind my feelings? Are they valid? Have I challenged them? Am I ignoring other factors?

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