People diagnosed with panic disorder frequently use a mental filter to sift out all of the pleasant and fulfilling parts of their lives, while bringing more attention to their inadequacies and dissatisfaction. They may center on their feelings of loneliness and avoidance behaviors, failing to notice ways in which they have actually learned to cope with panic disorder. Anxiety levels will continue to rise as positivity continues to be filtered out, while the self-defeating thoughts are intensified. Below are a few examples of using this type of negative thinking pattern. As you think about these examples, see if you recognize your own way of thinking in these situations. If you do find yourself in these stories, learn how to change your mental filters, reframing them to allow in more positive thoughts and ideas. Amy - Amy has long struggled with major depressive disorder and anxiety. Through psychotherapy, she has started to learn how to forgive those who have hurt her in her past. By forgiving her mother, Amy had developed a closer relationship with her and had even started to trust her more. One day Amy opened up to her mother about her diagnosis of depression. Her mother responded less compassionately than Amy had expected. She became infuriated and determined that she never should have forgiven her mother in the first place. Although her mother apologized for the misunderstanding, Amy refused to talk to her and now feels that therapy was a waste of time. Edmond can choose to focus on the good in the situation. He can recognize that it is possible that not everyone enjoyed his lecture, but that many students benefited from it. He may even be able to realize that in any lecture situation there are bound to be some people who are not appreciative, and give himself a pat on the back that, statistically, he had an excellent response to his lecture. Amy - Amy is failing to see the positive aspects of her relationship with her mother—by only focusing on the negative. Amy worked up the courage and strength to forgive her mother and develop a relationship with her again. However, she is upset that her mother didn’t respond to her the way she wanted her to. If Amy recognizes this mental filter, she may be able to see things in a more balanced way. Amy can then recognize that her mother may not act the way she wants her to, but that this does not mean that Amy’s gains through therapy were useless. Most situations in our lives can be looked at in more than one way. An example may be a young woman going through chemotherapy for breast cancer, a treatment which causes loss of all hair on the body. You could look at this situation in one way and become totally depressed about losing your beautiful hair. Or instead, you could look at it in another way. You won’t have to shave your legs for six months! This example is more extreme than many (yes, it’s pushing it) but serves as a reminder that sometimes with reframing you will need to “fake it till you make it.” After finishing this article and considering the ways in which both Edmond and Amy used reframing to address this type of cognitive distortion, you may wish to review some of the ways in which you can use reframing to lessen stress, including looking for what you can change, and finding humor. It is possible to change your perception of a situation, and use reframing to overcome the faulty thought pattern produced by mental filters.
Bottom Line
Only seeing the downside of a situation can be a crippling cognitive distortion for people with anxiety disorders. We have a choice to take notice of only the negative or to also see the silver lining in any given situation. After you’ve finished doing this, you may even wish to try finding silver linings in those situations in which there are truly many negatives.
