Cognitive distortions: magnification and minimization

Like I mentioned in my last video, cognitive distortions are often irrational patterns of thinking, which are negatively biased and deeply embedded. That is why even if we are told that our thinking is distorted it still feels true. When we work with my clients on changing their habitual thinking patterns we start with recognizing them first. Let’s look at the examples of magnification.

⛔️ Just imagine if you have a magnifier and use it every time when you look at all your little mistakes, imperfections and minor problems. No wonder they become significant and feel like life changing!

⛔️ What makes it worse is discounting your ability to deal with misfortunes, ignoring your previous successful experience when you overcame similar problems. While blowing negative things out of their proportion we tend to forget about our strong sides, useful skills and our achievements.

Can you relate to this? Share your examples of magnification and minimization in the comments below.

So how do we neutralize this cognitive distortion?
✔️Learn to spot it
✔️Once you notice it, label it
✔️Have another look at the situation and try to be more rational and accurate in your judgement
✔️Replace unproductive and negatively biased thought with a healthier one, which better reflects the reality.

Here is the example from my client.

Distorted thought: “this task at work seems to be so complicated and overwhelming that I don’t think I can complete it. I better put it off.”

Labelling the thought: “Ok, it looks like I am magnifying the potential difficulty of this task and minimizing my knowledge and past experience of dealing with similar situations.”

Healthy thinking: “Well, last time I felt same way I actually managed to complete the task. I remember I came up with a plan, divided the task into several assignments, asked for help with one of them. If I could handle it before then I can do it again, step by step.”

Join me in my Instagram community @rediscover.yourself.nl
Natalia Ladonycheva
Psychologist and CBT Therapist