Unhelpful Thought Patterns

Summary: What do I need to know?

Specific ways of thinking can make your pain worse.
Some types of negative thoughts fall into specific categories or thought patterns.
This page has information about the types of negative thought patterns.

Why is this important?

Recognizing the category of your thought can help you try to counteract the thought.
Counteracting the thought can help reduce your pain!

There are many ways of thinking that can negatively affect your pain. Knowing what they are and how to recognize them can help you try to counteract and reframe them. the goal isn't to get rid of all your negative thought patterns, that's impossible! The goal is to try and reduce how often you use these negative thought patterns, and to increase your more adaptive thought patterns.

For example, having negative thought patterns everyday of the week will lead to worse mood and pain. On the other hand, using adaptive thought patterns some days of the week will help you feel better!

Review some negative thinking patterns below. Which patterns do you find yourself using the most?

All-or-Nothing thinking

Viewing situations, people, or self as entirely bad or entirely good – nothing in between.

Click the arrows to go through some common examples!

Examples of All-or-Nothing Thinking

Raul forgot to take some of his medications he’s supposed to to manage his symptoms. He began thinking “I’m a total failure; I’m never going to be able to manage these medications and my pain”

If I’m not always doing everything the doctor says, then I have failed.

Either I do it right or not at all.

Overgeneralization

Viewing a single negative event as a never-ending pattern of defeat, e.g. “always” or “never”.

Seeing a pattern based upon a single event, or being overly broad in the conclusions we draw.

Examples of Overgeneralization

When you wake up in pain, you may think “I’ll never be able to enjoy anything anymore.”

My pain is ruining my life. I’ll never feel better

This pain medicine didn’t work at dinner the other night, it never works!

Magnification and Minimization

Catastrophizing: Blowing expected consequences out of proportion in a negative direction. Focusing on what is wrong instead of what one can do.

Minimization: Inappropriately shrinking something to make it seem less important.

Examples of Magnification and Minimization

Pain after Susie’s initial cancer surgery still hasn’t gone away after a few weeks. She thought, “My life is over. I’ll never have any friends or any fun. This pain will never go away.”

Carlos tried walking once and his pain got worse. He thought, “I’ll never be able to enjoy walking again, I should probably stop walking as much as I can to avoid the pain.”

“I worry all the time, will this pain ever end?”

I keep thinking about how badly I want this pain to stop.

Mental Filtering

Ignoring the positive things that happen to and around yourself, instead focusing on and accentuating the negative.

Only paying attention to certain types of evidence.

Examples of Mental Filtering

You are getting ready to go out with friends and discover the shirt you planned to wear has a stain. All you can think is “The whole evening is ruined.”

Noticing our failures but not seeing our successes.

My pain never lets me participate.

Forgetting the Positive

Rejecting positive experiences as not being important or meaningful or discounting things that are not consistent with negative beliefs.

Discounting the good things that have happened or that you have done for some reason or another.

Examples of Forgetting the Positive

A friend comes over to visit and tells you that you look great. You think “I don’t feel great. She doesn’t understand.” Maybe not, but maybe you don’t look as bad as you feel!

"That doesn’t count."

"No one understands me; I'm alone in my pain..."

... It's true no one knows the exact pain you're in. It can help to remind yourself of the people you do have around you or helping you in these moments

Jumping to Conclusions

Fortune telling: Predicting something will turn out badly.

Mind reading: Imagining we know what others are thinking

Examples of Jumping to Conclusions

Kelly finished getting her CT scan and immediately predicted that things are worse. “I’ll never get to enjoy another moment in my life,” she thought.

Jordan felt worse today and went to dinner with her family. “They can all see I’m feeling bad and don’t want to hang out with me today since I’m a burden.”

Emotional Reasoning

Reaching conclusions based on how one feels instead of more objective evidence.

Assuming that feelings reflect reality.

Examples of Emotional Reasoning

“I feel useless. (Therefore) I am useless”

“I feel embarrassed so I must be an idiot.”

Personalization

Taking responsibility for something even when the circumstances are beyond your control.

Examples of Personalization

Mark and his girlfriend went to a fancy restaurant for a date night, but the service and food were terrible. He found himself feeling responsible for making a bad choice and “ruining” their date.

Jennie had chemotherapy scheduled for Friday and was unable to attend her child’s presentation, she thought “I am a horrible mother.”

Labeling

Assigning labels to ourselves or other people

Examples of Labeling

I’m completely useless.

They’re such an idiot.

Should/Must

Using critical words like “should”, “must”, or “ought” can make us feel guilty or like we have already failed.

If we apply “should” to other people, the result is often frustration.

Examples of Should/Must Statements

“I should be doing more.”

“I must be making a bit deal of all this, this isn’t that bad.”

“I ought to be doing this all by myself; it's not fair to ask others for help.”

Want to learn more?

Check out these articles:

Tips for Healthier Thinking

Unhelpful Thinking Patterns