Cognitive Distortions: How To Stop Believing The Lies Your Brain Tells You

Dr. Tracey Marks, psychiatrist, explains:

Unreliable narrator

You can’t reasonably trust everything you think! This is because your brain sometimes invents false alarms when faced with uncertainty, leading you to believe negative thoughts that aren’t consistent with external reality.

You may be wondering why it does this: the answer is that the brain uses shortcuts for efficiency, but under stress the amygdala (alarm system) overrides rational thinking from the prefrontal cortex, reinforcing negative loops through neuroplasticity.

Four common distortions:

1. Catastrophizing (jumping to worst outcomes)
2. All-or-nothing thinking (assuming mutually exclusive extremes)
3. Mindreading (assuming others think negatively of you)
4. Personalization (blaming yourself for things beyond your control).

During distorted thinking, the worry feels like realism, making them powerful and damaging if unquestioned.

What to do about it: pause and ask “what’s the evidence for this thought?” to separate facts from fears, as in the example of a delayed text reply.

Then, it’s good to practise self-compassion, and acknowledge distortions kindly instead of judging yourself, seeing them as clumsy attempts by the brain to protect you.

For more on all of this, enjoy:

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Want to learn more?

You might also like:

CBT, DBT, & Radical Acceptance ← including what to do if you examine the evidence and conclude that your fears are, in fact, justified and probably correct

Take care!