Thinking Errors: Understanding and Addressing Them to Improve Recovery

Thinking Errors
Understanding and Addressing Them
Part of the Co-Occurring Disorders Recovery Coaching Series
Presented by: Dr. Dawn-Elise Snipes
Executive Director, AllCEUs

Objectives
 Define Thinking Errors
 Explore the different types of thinking errors
 Cognitive distortions
 Irrational Thoughts
 Evaluate how thinking errors can play into our
basic fears: Rejection, isolation, the unknown,
loss of control, failure
 Identify ways to
 Increase awareness of thinking errors
 Address thinking errors
 Address basic fears
Recovery & Resilience International in partnership with AllCEUs.com
Co-Occurring Disorders Recovery Coaching Curriculum

Why I Care/How It Impacts Recovery
 Thinking errors, or stinkin’ thinkin’ plays a large
part in keeping people miserable
 Addiction, depression, anxiety, anger and guilt
often stem or are made worse by faulty thinking
 Addressing these thought patterns will help you:
 Not make a mountain out of a molehill
 Focus on the things you can change
 Identify and eliminate thought patterns that are
keeping you stuck

What are Thinking Errors
 Cognitive Distortions take a thought and
manipulate it to
 Fulfil your expectations of a situation
 Conform to your current head space (negative begets
negative)
 Irrational Thoughts are beliefs/thoughts that you
may hold that
 Are usually extreme (I must have love and approval
from everyone all the time)
 Are unrealistic
 Create feelings of failure, inadequacy,
disempowerment

Cognitive Distortions
 Personalizing
 Mindreading
 All-or-Nothing/Polarized
 Catastrophizing
 Overgeneralization
 Shoulds
 Recency/Availability Heuristic
Evaluate how thinking errors can play into our basic fears:
Rejection, isolation, the unknown, loss of control, failure

Irrational Beliefs
 If I make a mistake, it means that I am incompetent.
 When somebody disagrees with me, it is a personal
attack.
 I must be liked by all people.
 My true value depends on what others think of me.
 If I am not in a relationship, I am completely alone.
 Success and failure are black and white. There is no
gray.
Evaluate how thinking errors can play into our basic fears: Rejection,
isolation, the unknown, loss of control, failure

Irrational Beliefs
 Nothing ever turns out the way you want it to.
 If the outcome was not perfect, it was a complete
failure.
 If something bad happens, it is my fault.
 The past always repeats itself.
 If it was true then, it must be true now.
Evaluate how thinking errors can play into our basic fears: Rejection,
isolation, the unknown, loss of control, failure

Irrational Thoughts Quick Help
 What is upsetting me?
 Why is this upsetting me?
 What are the FACTS for and against this belief
 Am I reacting based on facts or feelings?
 What cognitive distortions am I using?
 What irrational thoughts am I using?

ABC-DEF
 Activating Event (What happened)
 Beliefs
 Obvious
 Negative self-talk//Past tapes
 Consequences
 Dispute Irrational Thoughts
 Evaluate the Most Productive Outcome
 Is this worth my energy?
 How can I best use my energy to deal with or let go of
the situation?

Triggers—Coping Skills
 Distract don’t react
 Talk it through
 Urge surf
 Notice how you are feeling
 Remind yourself it increases and decreases like a wave
 Notice changes as the urge goes out
 Change and Challenge thoughts
 You CAN do it
 Don’t romanticize the use

Constructive Self Talk
 Pinpoint what you tell yourself about an urge that
makes it harder to cope with the urge
 Use self-talk constructively to challenge that
statement. An effective challenge will make you
feel better (less tense, anxious, panicky)
 What is the evidence
 What is so awful about that
 You are a regular human being and have a right to
make mistakes

Distressing Thoughts Worksheet
 What is the evidence
 Am I assuming causation where no exists?
 Am I confusing thought or feeling with fact?
 Am I close enough to really know what is going on?
 Am I thinking in all-or-none?
 Am I using extreme words like always or never
 Is the source of the information credible
 Am I confusing low with high probability
 Am I focusing on irrelevant factors?
 Is this thinking getting me closer to what I want?
 What are the advantages/disadvantages to thinking this way
 What difference will this make in a month/year.

Other CBT Interventions
 Recognize how
 Thoughts can cause feelings
 Feelings can cause thoughts
 Activity scheduling to increase positive emotion and
mastery
 Exposure with Response Prevention
 Recognize Negative Thoughts
 Problem-Solving Skills

Group Activity
 List thinking errors and discuss how those patterns
protected you until now
 Example: Prevented you from being disappointed if you
expected to fail or expected people to leave
 Identify thinking errors that you can, currently, eliminate
and a countering mantra
 I need to be loved by everybody all the time
 I need to love myself all the time and not everybody is
capable of loving. It is about them, not me.
 Identify thinking errors that you still hold onto and why,
then develop a plan to start addressing them.

Decisional Balance
 This thought pattern was learned over a long
period of time
 It served a purpose and was more beneficial than
the alternative
 Changing your outlook means seeing how this
thought pattern is destructive, and alternate
thought patterns may (now) be more helpful.
 Example: In an addicted home the mantra is don’t talk,
don’t trust, don’t feel. For a child from an addicted
home negative thinking helped you align with the
primary caregiver and provided safety. As an adult, you
no longer require that safety.

Apply It
 Identify 3 ways you could have used this information in
the past week.
 What was the situation?
 What did you do?
 How effective was that for you?
 Short term
 Long Term
 If you would have had this new information, what could you
have done differently?
 How would that have changed the outcome?
 How can you start integrating this knowledge into your routine

Summary
 Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is a technique that
helps people:
 Understand how thoughts create feelings and vice versa
 Identify and address negative self talk
 Issues and events from the past do not need to
continue to negatively impact a person
 Thinking errors are learned and can be unlearned
 These thought patterns help to form and maintain
a negative or vulnerable self image.
 Healthy thought patterns can help people feel
more empowered and worthy of love.

Thinking Errors: Understanding and Addressing Them to Improve Recovery

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