The Dangers of Cognitive Distortions




Iwoke up to no electricity Monday morning, and my first thought was to question whether I’d paid the bill. Once I confirmed that I’d paid it (early even!), my mind still went dark.A power line was downed in a storm the night before, and the electric company indicated it wouldn’t be fixed until 8:30 pm. All day my mind kept going to the worst of what could happen because the power was out for “god knows how long.” “God knows how long” was more than 12 hours without electricity. The CDC recommends tossing food after 4 hours of sitting in a refrigerator with no power—especially eggs and poultry. I have no meat in my fridge, so I was grateful, but I have eggs.

I buy expensive eggs, too—grass-fed-free-range-cage-free-chicken-is-a-human type eggs. I know, I know. That’s not an actual type of chicken egg.When I got diagnosed with cPTSD, the first recovery technique I learned was to recognize and get out of “thinking traps,” known as cognitive distortions. If you’ve been a victim of abuse or any traumatic event, it can be easy to feel like you have no control over your life when bad things happen. This is where cognitive distortions come into play. Cognitive distortions lead you down a path of all or nothing. Along with anxiety, cognitive distortions trick you into amplifying problems while at the same time underestimating your ability to solve them. When my power went out, all my food would…