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CBT · 5 minute read

Thinking patterns

The predictable ways an anxious or low mind bends the facts, and why naming them helps.

Key takeaways

  • Under pressure, minds lean the same few ways: all-or-nothing, fortune-telling, feelings as facts and a handful more.
  • A pattern isn't a flaw in you. It's a shortcut every mind takes when it's tired, anxious or low.
  • Naming the pattern turns a "fact" back into a thought you can test. You don't have to argue with every one.

The same few ways

In the early 1960s, the psychiatrist Aaron Beck noticed something about his depressed patients' thoughts. They weren't random. They leaned the same few ways, again and again. Every setback proved they were failures, and every kind word was luck. He called these slants cognitive distortions, and they became the starting point of cognitive therapy, now CBT.

The psychiatrist David Burns later gave them everyday names in his book Feeling Good (1980), and that's the list most people know today. In Maya they're called patterns, and you'll sometimes see one on a card.

Everyone's mind does this, especially when tired, anxious or low. A pattern isn't a flaw in you. It's a shortcut the mind takes under pressure.

The common ones

Each with a question to ask

  • All-or-nothing

    "If it isn't perfect, it's a disaster." Ask: is there a middle ground between total success and total failure here?

  • Overgeneralizing

    "This always happens to me." Ask: is this really always true, or am I thinking of a few times?

  • Mental filter

    One awkward moment colors the whole evening. Ask: what am I leaving out of the picture?

  • Discounting the good

    "They were only being polite." Ask: what good things am I brushing aside?

  • Mind reading

    "She hasn't replied, so she must be annoyed with me." Ask: how do I actually know what they think?

  • Fortune-telling

    "It's going to go badly." Ask: what evidence do I actually have that this will happen?

  • Catastrophizing

    "If I fail this, my life is over." Ask: what's the most likely outcome, not just the worst one?

  • Feelings as facts

    "I feel stupid, so I must have messed up." Ask: just because I feel it, does that make it true?

  • "Should" rules

    "I should be coping better." Ask: whose rule is this, and is it a fair one?

  • Labeling

    "I'm such an idiot." Ask: would I describe a friend this way for the same thing?

  • Taking it personally

    "They're quiet, so I must have upset them." Ask: what else, besides me, could explain this?

Question 1 of 2

Priya didn't get a job she interviewed for. She thinks, "I never get anything. I'll be stuck forever." Which pattern is this most like?

Question 2 of 2

Tom feels anxious walking into a meeting and thinks, "Something must be wrong." Which pattern is this?

Naming it is the first step

Spotting a pattern gives you a little distance. The thought stops being simply true and becomes something your mind is doing. From there you can test it with Evidence check, or step back from it with Zoom out.

You don't need to argue with every thought. The aim isn't to think only positive things. It's to see the facts a bit more clearly.

Sources and further reading

Finish the lesson

0 of 2 questions done. Answer the rest to finish.