Cognitive Distortion: Filtering

These exercises are based on well-known cognitive distortions, which are inaccurate thoughts that reinforce negative thought patterns or emotions. Definitions used in this exercise come from www.positivepsychology.com with my thoughts added.

 Filtering refers to the way a person can ignore all of the positive and good things in life to focus solely on the negative. It’s the trap of dwelling on a single negative aspect of a situation, even when surrounded by an abundance of good things.

 This concept is easily illustrated by a common experience in the grocery store check-out line. We often believe that we are always in the slowest moving line. You know, the one where the person in front of you has a cart filled to the brim or they can’t find their wallet or where they need multiple price checks. Or the line where the cashier is new or the register goes down.

In reality, most people will have a mix of experiences at the grocery store check-out line. Yes, sometimes all the negative, time-consuming things seem to happen, but many times you are in line when a new checkout line opens up and you are now at the front of the line. Or you do actually pick the line full of savvy shoppers with only a few items. People who struggle with filtering only remember those times when they were in the slow moving line and generalize that to believe they always pick the worst line, when objectively that is simply not true. Fixing this cognitive distortion involves recognizing it and countering it with the truth. When you think, “I always get the slow line,” tell yourself, “Oops, looks like I picked a slow line this time,” remembering that this is not always the case.

 Other common situations for filtering: Only believing and remembering negative feedback and comments from others, only remembering conflicts with people and not the good or neutral times, only remembering failures and not successes.

 Is this a cognitive distortion you struggle with? What is a real-life example where you use filtering? How can you reframe your situation?