While researching materials for a course on confidence I came across this great site on Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and negative thought patterns. It also contains one of my favourite words: CATASTROPHISING!
Extract from CBT Site on Negative Thought Patterns:
OVERGENERALISING
You think that because an unpleasant thing happened to you once, it will ALWAYS happen to you. For example, a young man who felt lonely, unwanted and rejected thought that he would never be able to have a girlfriend as girls did not find him attractive. He had asked a girl from the office out and she turned him down. This meant that all other girls he invited out would do the same thing.
Words that indicate you may be overgeneralising are all, every, none, never, always, everybody, everything and nobody.
Words that indicate you may be overgeneralising are all, every, none, never, always, everybody, everything and nobody.
LABELLING
When you call yourself “Stupid” or “Totally Hopeless” or a “Failure” you are using the extreme form of overgeneralisation, that is you give yourself a GENERAL LABEL on the basis of perhaps one mistake or one failure. This can mean that you are not able to see yourself any other way.
PERSONALISING
You think that YOU are solely responsible for a negative or unpleasant event, when often there is little basis for this conclusion in fact. A mother of two thinks that her children are quarrelling about which programme to watch on television because she is inadequate. A passer-by frowns and you think “he finds me disgusting”. People do not appear to be enjoying themselves very much at a party and you think: “it is my fault, I am not entertaining enough”.
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Psychology So What: Watch how you think!