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Experiencing unpleasant emotions such as depression and anxiety often develop because of certain thought patterns that become automatic over time. A person may not be aware that they are utilizing these distressing thinking strategies we call “Unhelpful Thinking Styles.” Learning about unhelpful thinking styles, and identifying them as they come up, can help individuals begin to change their thinking leading to more pleasant emotions, and thus less symptoms of depression and anxiety. 

Here are 9 unhelpful thinking styles that could be contributing to unpleasant emotions. In each case, I give examples of how to challenge these thinking styles with the goal of establishing more helpful, balanced, and positive thoughts. 

1. Black and White Thinking

In this thinking style, you might see only the extremes of a situation. Either things are all good or all bad, all right or all wrong. There is no room for shades of grey. Challenge these thoughts by asking yourself whether your view is too rigid or extreme, or whether there is a perspective in which things may not be perfect but are still workable.

2. Shoulding and Musting

This thinking style often puts demands on yourself or others. While in certain cases, there are legitimate reasons to make such statements (e.g. “I should not drink and drive”), sometimes they create expectations that are unrealistic. When you identify yourself using this thinking style, challenge yourself to be more flexible and ask if you could replace the “should” or “must” with “could” or “would like to.” Oftentimes, we think of these scenarios as strict rules when they are simply desires or possibilities that we feel responsible to make happen.

3. Labelling

This thinking style involves making global statements about specific behaviours as if they apply to the person or situation all the time when there may be more instances than not of how that behaviour or situation was not true or simply an exception. Ask yourself, “Is this situation or behaviour consistent?” “Are there examples where this label is not the case?”

4. Mental Filtering

This is a type of tunnel vision where one filters out portions of a situation. Often this looks like focusing on one negative aspect of a situation colouring your whole perception of the event which may have had multiple positive aspects to it as well. Challenge yourself to consider the whole picture if you find yourself thinking overly negatively. Ask, “Am I ignoring anything?” or “Is there information I am not taking into consideration?”

5. Overgeneralizing

Overgeneralizing involves statements such as “you always” or “you never.” It is a process of taking one experience and imposing it on all future similar situations. Asking questions such as “Does this apply to all situations or are there differences?” “What are the facts?” and look for specific details to help you understand if you may be overgeneralizing.

6. Jumping to Conclusions

This thought pattern involves assuming something about someone or a situation. It can take the form of mind reading, where you assume what another person is thinking, or predictive thinking where you assume how a certain scenario is going to play out in the future. In general, try not to assume anything. Ask yourself how you know this to be true, whether there are any alternative explanations, or whether your feelings might be playing into your response.

7. Catastrophizing

Common amongst anxious individuals, catastrophizing is a thinking style that presumes the worst will happen in any situation. We often say that someone is “blowing things out of proportion” when they are catastrophizing. It is very important that catastrophizers learn to put things into perspective. This involves playing out not only the worst-case scenario but also the best-case scenario and the scenario that is most likely to occur (and recognizing that in most scenarios, things will work out okay). 

8. Personalization

Personalization is where you blame yourself or consider yourself fully responsible for anything that goes wrong in a situation. Personalization also involves a heavy focus on yourself and for example, believing that if someone is making a scowling face, that it must be directed at you, when it could have had nothing to do with you at all. Determining all the potential causes may help challenge this thinking by allowing you to recognize other's responsibility in a given situation and other factors (outside yourself) that may have contributed to the behaviour you believe is directed at you. Ask, “Is this really about me or are there other factors at play here?’

9. Magnification and Minimization

This thinking style magnifies the positive aspects of others while minimizing your own positive contributions by explaining them away. Sometimes we place others on a pedestal and explain away their responsibility because of their experiences or our negative perceptions of ourselves. Challenge this by asking yourself whether others would view your and others' responsibility in certain scenarios the same as you would, whether you are building others up in your head, or using a form of comparison that makes you feel less than in any given situation or circumstance.

Intentionally learning to identify and challenge these unhelpful thinking styles will allow you to understand the reality of your situation more clearly by putting it into perspective. We all use unhelpful thinking styles at times. You may find that some resonate more deeply than others. Intentionally looking out for these thinking styles and challenging them as they arise will help you to reframe your negative thinking and lead to more desirable emotions. 

If you would like assistance redirecting your thinking, please reach out to Chrystal at 343-338-3131 or email us through our Contact Us page to set up a free no-obligation consultation. Support is necessary in learning to identify and challenge unhelpful thinking styles and we would love to help you on your journey towards healthier thought patterns.