Episode 105: Mental Shortcuts That Kill (Body Positivity Series)

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Last week, Lauren talked about Cognitive Distortions and how they create mental traps we all fall into.  The more aware we are of these traps the better able we are to recognize the thoughts for what they are (which is being unhelpful) and either avoid them or get ourselves out of them (whether on our own or with professional help!) 

As I listed out all the cognitive distortions in the show notes last week, I became more and more intrigued and fascinated by them.  I started to research the subject more and was a little surprised when I saw several phrases I know I’ve said before pop up in examples of cognitive distortions.  Cognitive distortions can kill self esteem, prevent us from forming meaningful relationships, block us from maturing emotionally and mentally and they affect how we treat ourselves.   These mental filters can be down right dangerous because they alter our perception and we feel justified taking actions that can literally lead to death. 

Cognitive distortions happen in ALL of our brains because we are ALL human and our brains constantly look for ways to filter and create short cuts to handle the copious amounts of information it has to process every second.To deal with this, our brains seek shortcuts to cut down our mental burden.  Our job is to catch ourselves when our brain takes mental shortcuts that distort reality and confuse fiction for fact. This episode is going to be so helpful to all of us, because the first step in avoiding them is being aware they exist in the first place!! I am so excited to share with you what mental shortcuts to be aware of and the steps to we need to free us from their toxic entanglements! 

So what are these unhelpful mental filter traps? Well today I will list 16 of them and try to give a couple helpful relatable examples so you can hear how easy it is to fall into a distorted trap and hopefully start noticing when you have similar thoughts regarding your current circumstances. (Notice I said when not if.) 

1. Polarized Thinking
2. Mental Filtering
3.  Overgeneralization
4. Jumping to conclusions (Mind Reading & Fortune Telling)
5. Catastrophizing (magnification & Minimization)
6.  Personalization 
7. Blaming
8. Labeling
9. Always Being Right
10. Should Statements
11. Emotional Reasoning
12. Control Fallacies (External & Internal)
13. Fallacy of Change
14. Fallacy of Fairness
15. Heaven's Reward Fallacy
16. The Unreal Ideal/The Unfair Comparison 

STEPS TO AVOID & GET OUT OF MENTAL TRAPS: 

1. Recognize & Identify the Cognitive Distortion. (Isolate the Thought).
   
   
2. Write Down the Thought.
   
   
3. Identify the Distress/Discomfort Level.
   
   
4. Challenge & Reframe Your Thoughts.
   
   
5. Reevaluate the Distress/Discomfort Level...ask for help!

https://www.mindmypeelings.com/blog/challenging-cognitive-distortions