Are any of these familiar?

We all have the occasional negative thought. But sometimes we get stuck in a pattern of negative—and inaccurate—thinking. Often this comes from assuming the worst or jumping to conclusions.

Here’s a list of distorted thought patterns.

1. All-or-nothing thinking: Seeing something or someone as all good or all bad. Look for words like always or never.
   Example: “I always say the wrong thing!”
2. Mislabeling: Taking something that happened and making a broad, incorrect statement.
   Example: “I have trouble understanding the scriptures, so I must be stupid.”
3. Jumping to conclusions: Interpreting others’ thoughts or assuming the worst possible outcome.
   Example: “I just know everyone is laughing at me.”
4. Personalizing: Blaming yourself for a situation that in reality involved many factors.
   Example: “They didn’t call me back, so they must be mad at me.”
5. Emotional reasoning: Judging a situation based on how you feel.
   Example: “I’m not happy, so I must have done something wrong.”
6. Overgeneralization: Applying one experience and generalizing it to all experiences.
   Example: “I didn’t get the job I applied for, so obviously I’ll never get hired.”
7. Negative mental filtering: Focusing on a negative detail and dwelling on it.
   Example: “I got an A on my test, but I didn’t get 100%.”
8. Discounting the positive: Rejecting all positive experience because you feel like they don’t count.
   Example: “Sure, it was a personal record, but I’m still a lot slower than everyone else. So it doesn’t really matter.”
9. Magnification: Exaggerating your weaknesses or comparing them to others’ strengths.
   Example: “Coach is going to take one look at my old shoes and kick me off the team.”
10. “Should” statements: Telling yourself how things should or should not be.
    Example: “I should have known better!”

Do you recognize any of these from your own life? Pay extra attention to your thoughts this week. Next week we’ll share ideas for developing more positive thought patterns.

Remember, you are amazing and awesome and wonderful. Don’t believe anyone who tells you otherwise! We are all a work in progress.

Note: This is part of an ongoing series about emotional resilience, adapted from this manual.