How to Identify a "Cognitive Distortion" in Seconds #shorts

Your thoughts feel like facts, but sometimes they're distorted, warped by anxiety, depression, or old patterns. Here's how to spot a cognitive distortion quickly. Ask yourself, am I using absolute words like always, never, everyone, or no one? Reality rarely deals in absolutes. These words signal all or nothing thinking. Ask yourself, am I mind reading? This is assuming that you know what others think without real evidence. Like, they must think I'm an idiot, but you don't actually know that. Ask yourself, am I catastrophizing? Jumping to the worst possible outcome. If I fail this, my life is over. Is it proportional to reality? Ask yourself, am I filtering? Which is focusing only on the negative and ignoring anything positive. Like one criticism erases 10 compliments. With this analysis, you're not trying to talk yourself out of real problems. You want to notice when your brain is adding distortion to the signal. Name the distortion. That alone creates distance. And now you're evaluating the thought instead of drowning in it.