Another exercise from “8 Keys to Recovery from an Eating Disorder: Effective Strategies from Therapeutic Practice and Personal Experience” is to review many cognitive distortions and see which ones apply to me. Below are the distortions I think affect me.
- All or nothing thinking: This is also known as black and white thinking or perfectionist thinking. Intellectually, you know there are shades of gray, but in certain circumstances, intellect and reason go out the window. “One extra cookie means I have to eat the whole box” and “I am either thin or fat” exemplify this type of extreme thinking.
- Emotional reasoning: You believe your feelings make it true. “I feel fat” means, “I am fat.” “I feel hopeless” means, “I am hopeless.” It is hard to separate reality from feelings.
- Magnification or minimization: Things either matter too much or not enough. “No store has clothes that will fit me,” or “My weight loss is not that bad” are typical thoughts.
- Mental filter: You take in all the negative aspects of an experience and filter out the positives. “I stopped bingeing and purging six days this week, but the one day I did binge and purge ruined everything.”
- Should statements: You criticize yourself (or others) with ‘should’ or ‘oughts,’ e.g., ‘I should be able to get better on my own.’
Tasting Freedom 