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Recognising and Overcoming Cognitive Distortions (biased ways of thinking)

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Recognising and overcoming cognitive distortions (biased ways of thinking)

I picked up on  (thanks again if you're reading this :-)  ) recommendation about this  https://youtu.be/Ek6V4F6nWM8 ?  I find it a great start for beneficial for self-help.  Right place, right time as they say.

"Cognitive distortions are biased ways of thinking that can cause individuals to perceive situations, themselves, and others in a negative or inaccurate light. They are often automatic and habitual, making them difficult to recognize without conscious effort. " says google.

This is a core part of CBT which I acknowledge is considered less successful for autistic people than for neurotypicals.  hehe perhaps that's because of the cognitive distortions that autistic people experience which CBT is aimed at helping!

Change is hard for autistic people and maybe in part it is related to one's thinking...  So maybe changing one's thinking is especially hard for autistics?  

Anyway the link at the top I personally found to be a good base for some self-help on this.

So I would like to promote a discussion about it please.

Maybe some of you reading this are in the right place and the right time for it too?

Maybe some of you have tried it and it didn't work for you?

Maybe some have tips for making it work or pitfalls to avoid?

Maybe just to say it works and is worth the hard work?

Best Wishes - Live long and Prosper!

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  • i personally struggled to get what I desired from CBT. It’s a great model, it makes a lot of sense in terms of its concept, a way of trying to change how you think, applying different strategies over time. I could see how this could really benefit some people. Something about it felt for me like I was trying to climb a mountain without any gear though, I couldn’t truly put my worries into boxes and describe them accurately because I wasn’t able to really understand how I felt about each worry. For example there was a part about distinguishing worries like this: 

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  • i personally struggled to get what I desired from CBT. It’s a great model, it makes a lot of sense in terms of its concept, a way of trying to change how you think, applying different strategies over time. I could see how this could really benefit some people. Something about it felt for me like I was trying to climb a mountain without any gear though, I couldn’t truly put my worries into boxes and describe them accurately because I wasn’t able to really understand how I felt about each worry. For example there was a part about distinguishing worries like this: 

Children
  • in reply to Autismman

    Thanks for sharing that (I mean that - I'm autistic too!)

    I think I understood  Go easy on yourself about that I suggest.  Same problem for me. Had that in "basic level" CBT - kept asking me to say what I was worried about and I had no idea.  "How does a fish know it's swimming in water"? was my response.

    Before getting to the point of nailing the worries down I had to get anxiety down to a low enough level to be able to think clearly enough to do that.

    Packed in drinking, got out of work on sickness, got took on a holiday, had my wife back after she'd been away for a week, got away for a day watching aeroplanes with my oldest friend, got some sleep, got some exercise, got to the point where it was clear that I had nothing else to lose, got lucky.

    Because one problem is that with so many bl00dy worries (which may be the cognitive distortions they are talking about) it's really hard to not be anxious!

    I suspect that the level of anxiety that autistics may present with could be higher than is "normal" in the CBT setting because most of us are so anxious all the time.   So handling the anxiety is the first thing to do if possible maybe?  - get out of the situation that is causing it is the only way I know that really works for me...   Is that the same for you or could there be something else that makes it hard to identify the worries for you?

    According to this : How to Get Out of an Autistic Thought Loop | Psychology Today United Kingdom

    “What you can do, however, is identify the types of situations that are the worst culprits and make efforts to minimise or avoid certain situations.”   

    Works for me - trick for me is not to feel guilty about it and not to judge oneself by neurotypical standards about what one should be able to manage with.  (the should or could cognitive distortion..)  And I guess to be fortunate enough to be able to do so.

    Any chance that anxiety and fear is the root of a lot of this?  If that's the case then "emotional reasoning" seems to be the cognitive distortion that's underlying that 

    This is where the feelings experienced equal facts, and a lot of the fight or flight responses are linked.  Most of this is kept in check for me by a lot of hard work with mediation, yoga and emotional intelligence both for myself and for others.  Unfortunately, when anxiety peaks it’s especially hard to ground oneself from this disregulation and when I encounter or sense unreasonable or unfair behaviour to others or myself it is an especial challenge to inhibit this cognitive distortion from taking place.

    In my case I sat down last night and went through each of the cognitive distortions in the list and applied the analysis of them to my workplace experiences - writing it down as I went. 

    It helped me that I was also saying that I hadn't received appropriate support, had a list of things where reasonable adjustments hadn't been followed and therefore could say these where the reasons why I was made so anxious...   (OK truth is I was bl00dy anxious all the time anyway...)

    This got over the "personalisation" distortion of it being my fault enough to allow me to be open and honest about my brain being messed - with for a reason that wasn't down to me personally.

    So maybe hang with it maybe - it isn't easy.  If it was we would have done it already!