Snippet 26: Cognitive Biases That Are Giving You Anxiety (And How To Avoid Them) - Dr Julie Smith
Nov 7, 2023
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Psychologist Dr Julie Smith discusses cognitive biases that cause anxiety and shares strategies to overcome them. Topics include anxious thought patterns, personalizing, cognitive biases in anxiety, and the importance of recognizing and challenging biases to reduce anxiety.
Personalizing is a biased response where we interpret events as negative reflections of ourselves, but acknowledging it allows us to disengage from anxious thinking.
The mental filter is a cognitive bias associated with depression, filtering out positive thoughts and fixating on negative aspects, but recognizing it empowers us to shift our attention to more constructive thoughts.
Deep dives
Personalizing anxious thoughts
Personalizing is a common anxious thought pattern where individuals tend to interpret events as being about themselves in a negative way. For example, if someone doesn't wave back when we say hi, we might immediately think it's because of something we did wrong and spiral into self-loathing. However, personalizing is a biased and quick response from our brain, trying to keep us safe but not always reflecting reality. Acknowledging personalizing allows us to consider alternative explanations and disengage from anxious thinking.
The mental filter
The mental filter is a cognitive bias frequently associated with depression. It involves filtering out positive or helpful thoughts and fixating on negative aspects, leading to a downward spiral. For instance, when receiving positive feedback, we might focus on the one negative comment, disregarding all the compliments. Recognizing the mental filter and labeling it empowers us to break free from the negative cycle and shift our attention to more constructive and supportive thoughts.
We all have days where we just can't seem to switch of the chatter in our heads, and it can be really difficult to break the cycle. In this Snippet, Psychologist Dr Julie Smith explains how these cognitive biases work and how to overcome them.