Cognitive Distortion Categories:

All or nothing thinking – no middle ground to the thought

Overgeneralization – generalizing from one experience, expecting it to hold true forever, applying an opinion or idea to a greater/wider scale than is actually accurate.

The mental filter - focusing on negatives while filtering out positives

Diminishing the positive – not accepting, identifying with the positive when it happens

Jumping to Conclusions – making negative interpretations without actual evidence

Catastrophizing – Expecting the worst to happen

Emotional reasoning- Believing the way you feel reflects reality

Shoulds and Should Nots – Holding yourself to a standard and beating yourself up if you don’t live up to it

Labeling – labeling yourself based on mistakes and perceived shortcomings

Personalization – Assuming responsibility for things that are outside your control

PART I: Situational Awareness

a) Description of the situation (where you were, what you were doing, if anyone else was involved)

b) Any noticeable environmental/social triggers that flared the anxiety (if any)

c) Description of the inner dialogue at the time (what was your thought(s)? Self-talk? Stories? Emotions/sensations?)

d) Please add this to your written record: Rate the emotional intensity (Level of intensity 1 – 5. 1 = a little higher than usual to 5 = extreme, i.e. panic attack or major depression)

e) Please add this to your written record: How long it lasted. What seemed to change the state (situational change, distraction, positive reframing, breathing, time, etc…)

Part II: Cognitive Reframing

f) Thought you are reframing: Write down the negative thought

g) Cognitive Distortion: Challenge the validity of the though by identifying how it’s distorted

h) Choose a more realistic, positive thought: