Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Thinking in black and white

An important part of any therapy is helping people make sense of things. As a therapist, if I can help someone figure out what’s really driving their emotions and behaviors, then there’s a chance they can do something about it.

One of the ways that CBT makes sense of things is by helping people identify the thoughts behind their moods. Once you pinpoint the thoughts, then you can start to examine them for accuracy.

I’ve found that many of my clients benefit from a list of thought categories that drive moods. These lists have various names—cognitive distortions, irrational beliefs, thinking errors—none of which I particularly like because of their pejorative nature. They’re simply ways of thinking that everyone engages in from time to time. The important thing is to recognize when your thoughts fit into one of the categories.

In this post, I’d like to look at one of the most common thought categories: black-and-white thinking (a.k.a. all-or-nothing thinking or dichotomous thinking). This happens when you see yourself as having very limited options in a situation, and none of them is good. Further, the options often represent opposite extremes (hence the “all-or-nothing”).

Some examples:

“I’m either a complete success or a total failure.”
“I can either stay in my job forever or quit right now.”
“If I don’t bottle up my anger, then I explode.”

When feelings are running high, it’s easy to lose sight of your options. Depression and anger can narrow your view even further. The CBT way of addressing these kinds of thoughts is to challenge them by asking, “Are these really the only options?” “Is there some middle ground or alternative that I haven’t considered?” Often it’s helpful to see your options as a continuum, with extremes at either end. This can help highlight the possibility that other choices exist somewhere in between.

1 comment:

  1. I can totally relate....and that is what I am working on in my t. Thanks for sharing.

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