How Do Thinking Errors Influence Depression?

What are thinking errors?

When we experience depression our thinking style tends to change. This change in thinking style can distort our perception, mood and behaviour. It is vital to recognise when these processes are occurring, so that we can learn to detach from them.

If we find that we are saying things to ourselves such as "nothing ever works for me," "he/she always does that to me" or "I’m never considered", this will be our reality in that moment of time. If it were true that nothing ever worked out, that all people always behave like this to us, and that we were never considered that indeed would be very depressing!

The first stage in recognising whether thinking errors or biases are impacting on our mood state is to start noting down on paper the thoughts that are floating in and out of our mind. When this is complete, have a look at your notes while looking at the list below (based on earlier work by Aaron Beck, Burns and others). Focussing on your notes, highlight the thoughts or ideas that could be viewed as thinking biases based on the following criteria.

All or nothing thinking: Viewing things as either right or wrong. There is no middle ground and no shades of grey. Things are either perfect or fundamentally flawed. There is just black and white, grey does not exist.

Disqualifying the positive: Positives don’t count, there is nothing special about the way I did it. "That only happened because I was lucky".

Emotional reasoning: Using emotions as proof that things are the way that they are. I feel it, so it must be true. Feelings are treated as facts.

Fortune telling: Predicting the future in a negative way without any real evidence, e.g., "It’s going to be terrible" "I’ll never cope" "It will be a nightmare".

Mind reading: Drawing conclusions about what others are thinking without any real evidence. Thinking that people are thinking badly of us.

Mental filtering: Selecting specific negative ideas to dwell on and ignoring all of the positive one’s.

Should, ought, and must statements: Having ideas that things can only be done one way. "People should ... " "I must ..." "I really ought to ... " "He shouldn’t have ... "

Personalising: Focussing on things in the immediate environment and connecting it to the self. Thinking for example, "she did that deliberately because she knew that I wouldn’t like that." The world revolves around the self.

Over-generalising: Taking single events or circumstances and viewing them as happening more often than they really do. Thinking that things happen everywhere.
Magnification or minimisation: Taking events and distorting them. Not dissimilar to looking at one’s self through a fairground distorting mirror. Viewing things as larger or smaller than they really are.

What happens if I am experiencing thinking biases?

If you are experiencing thinking biases you will probably recognise them due to the strong emotional reaction that they produce.

It could be suggested that some parts of the brain find it difficult to distinguish between thoughts that are factual and thoughts that are based on fiction. (This is based on an idea that our bodies are continually attempting to move ahead of our minds, altering physiology to prepare us for any future situations that might occur. In this respect, whenever we have a thought, our body tends to produce a parallel physiological reaction to match it. This reaction often occurs whether there is any factual basis behind our thoughts or not. For example, if we get totally engrossed in an exciting film on television, our bodies produce numerous physiological changes in us, without us leaving our armchairs.) If we totally believe our thinking biases, our bodies will react to them as if they are true. The physiological reactions that we experience in response to our thoughts, then appear to give further evidence for our thoughts. For example, "I feel it, so it must be true". The cycle can continue unabated if left.

What could we do if we notice that we are experiencing thinking biases?

If we notice that our thoughts are following a pattern like any of those described above, it is likely that they will directly be contributing to our mood and our behaviour. In this situation we have a choice.

We can choose to challenge our thoughts looking for alternative evidence for or against them and/or

We can recognise that we are having thoughts based on thinking biases and recognise them for exactly what they are "thoughts".

Further information, as well as a thinking biases inventory download can be found on our website.

How do thinking errors influence depression?
CBT for depression