Cognitive Distortion Disorder

[swarbot]

Hello, I started suffering from anxiety and depression last year, and while I felt I had it under control its suddenly just returned, out of no where. I had an inititial counselling meeting and the counsellor reckons I have cognitive distortion. The worst thing is that as well as all the not being able to think straight my mind constantly racing, Ive started projecting all the negativity onto my girlfriend and this is putting major strain on our relationship which is in turn making my anxiety even worse. I really dont know what to do. I feel so low at the minute and have gone from being a confident guy to feeling so worthless. I have a session with the uni counsellor today and I hope she will be able to give me a bit of help. does anyone out there have any tips or info that can help me or my partner understand whats going on in my head right now

[MyNameIsTerry]

Welcome to NMP. You will find loads of people who understand what you are going through on here.

Cognitive distortion just means you have a negative outlook or believe things are negative in an irrational manner i.e. ignoring reality and assuming the negative.

This will be really common in anxiety disorders.

Some types of thinking patterns that this could fall into are:

Over Generalising:
Based on one isolated incident you assume that all others will follow a similar pattern in the future. Basically, you find it hard to see a negative event as a one off which can leave you feeling hopeless. For example:

• Because you had a panic attack one time whilst shopping, you believe that you will panic in every shop you go into in the future.

Black and White Thinking:
Often when feeling panicky, people see things as either black or white, there is no in between. For example:

• They believe any sign of anxiety is weak.
• They believe they never cope well when they go out.

This sets up expectations that can hold us back.

Ignoring the Positives:
Often people can ignore the positive aspects of life or situations, and instead focus on the negative elements. For example:

• They remember feeling panicky in the supermarket, but forget that they always cope well in the busy town centre.

These thoughts keep our confidence levels low and we attempt to do less.

Labelling:
Do you find that you attach negative 'labels' to yourself? For example:

• I'm weak.
• I'm always panicking.
• I'm incapable.

Labels like these tend to follow us around and hold us back.


Can you see yourself in any of that?

CBT is useful for tackling these issues as its big on addressing negative views & statements. It can do this via affirmations or by using Thought Records. Thought Records are useful because you take a troubling situation, write it down and how it makes you feel and then you rationalise against it in another column. Cognitive Restructing is another useful element.

Its worth discussing some of this with a therapist. Are you receiving formal therapy or is this just a support at the uni? If not, approach your GP and they will refer you to a service that can offer this.

In terms of how you feel, this may be linked to the thinking patterns but it could be more diverse. How has your anxiety disorder started? What is driving it? What is making you feel anxious?

Its unlikely that tackling negative thoughts alone is going to be covering all the elements that are bothering you so you need to determine what exactly is driving the anxiety issues. Tackling thoughts alone may be very useful but you need to understand whether thats all there is involved. Why is your mind racing for example? Why is this bothering your relationship? There could be elements of OCD or intrusive thoughts within those 2 areas hence its hard to say without knowing more.

I always suggest Mindfulness because it relaxes you and does a hell of a lot for thoughts. It includes acceptance as one of its elements which helps take the sting out of anxiety by pulling the rug from under it but it goes much further than acceptance alone by changing your attitude. This is likely to be very useful to you.