15 Mind Tricks Making You Unhappy

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Filtering – Removing all the positive aspects of a situation and only focusing on the negative.

Polarized Thinking – Things are either good or bad. You place yourself, people, and situations in either/or categories with no middle ground.

Overgeneralization – You make a general conclusion based on a single piece of evidence.  If something bad happens once you assume it’s going to keep happening.

Jumping to Conclusions – You assume you know what people are thinking or feeling without them actually saying so.

Catastrophizing – You assume the worst case scenario will happen. You exaggerate the bad and minimize the good.

Personalization – You believe that everything other people say and do is a direct (and personal) reaction to you.  You may also see yourself as the cause of an event that really had nothing to do with you.

Control Fallacies – If you feel externally controlled, everything that happens is not your fault.  If you feel internally controlled, then you are taking the responsibility for the feelings of everyone around you.

Fairness Fallacy – You believe your concept of “fair” is the only true definition leaving you constantly disappointed.

Blaming – You hold everyone but yourself responsible for situations when things don’t work out.

Shoulds – You have a mental list of rules and expectations that you believe people and situations should follow.  When other people break the rules you feel angry and when you break the rules you feel guilty.

Emotional Reasoning – You believe that if you feel it, it must be true.

Fallacy of Change – You believe that by pressuring or coaxing you can get people to change.  You believe that your happiness is dependent on these people changing.

Global Labelling – You change a situation-specific label into a global judgement.  For example, if you fail a test, you feel like a failure in all aspects of your life.  The same can be said when you interact with other people.  If someone cuts you off in conversation you believe he is a “jerk” instead of considering alternative explanations for the behaviour (maybe he didn’t hear you).

Need to be Right – Being wrong is not an option so you are always out to prove your “rightness”.

Heaven’s Reward Fallacy – You believe that you will ultimately be rewarded for your perceived sacrifices, as if someone is keeping score.  You feel bitter and disappointed when the reward doesn’t come.

Further information, click here: http://www.bedeeplyhappy.com/cognitive-distortions/