Cognitive Distortions 2026.
24 parts, 1 published, 23 written and not yet released.
Part 1· written, not yet released
One chip didn't ruin your diet. This thinking trap did. #psychology #mentalhealth
For example, you had one potato chip. And then you thought, well, the diet is ruined now — and you finished the whole packet. This cognitive distortion has a name. It's called black and white thinking. Your day was never ruined. What went missing was the conscious, attentive thought process in the m
Part 2· written, not yet released
Your boss's mood isn't about you. Here's why your brain says it is. #psychology
Your boss walks past without saying hello, and within about three seconds you're wondering what you did wrong. That's called personalisation. Most of the moods you take responsibility for have causes you'll never see. A bad night's sleep. A sick kid. Traffic. You didn't cause it. You just picked it
Part 3· written, not yet released
'I should be further along.' That's not motivation — it's a trap. #psychology
I should be further along by now. If you felt something in your chest when I said that, that's not motivation. These are called should statements. You're not lazy. You've been running a courtroom in your head all day, and that's exhausting.
Part 4· written, not yet released
'Can we chat tomorrow?' — and your brain plans the apocalypse. #psychology
Your boss messages: can we have a chat tomorrow. And your mind goes straight to — I'm being let go. That's catastrophising. What you have is a prediction, not a fact. An alarm going off doesn't mean there's a fire.
Part 5· written, not yet released
Why your brain replays that awkward moment at 2am. #psychology #mentalhealth
You said one slightly awkward thing at a party, and now it's two in the morning and you're still watching the replay. This is called magnifying. The moment didn't grow. Only the zoom did. And nobody else is replaying it, because they're busy with their own.
Part 6· written, not yet released
'Oh, it was nothing' — the compliment deflection trap. #psychology
Someone compliments your work and you hear yourself say, oh, it was nothing. Every time. That's called minimising. You're not being modest. You're deleting the evidence that you're doing okay.
Part 7· written, not yet released
No reply for 3 hours ≠ they hate you. #psychology #mentalhealth
They read your message at two, it's now five, and you already know they're annoyed with you. That's mind reading. You don't have information. You have anxiety doing an impression of them, and it's not a good impression.
Part 8· written, not yet released
You've already decided you'll fail — before you even tried. #psychology
You haven't applied yet, and you've already decided you won't get it. That's fortune telling. It isn't a forecast, it's more like a prophecy — it comes true because you acted as though it already had.
Part 9· written, not yet released
One bad date ≠ alone forever. #psychology #mentalhealth
One date goes badly and the verdict comes in straight away — I'll be on my own forever. That's overgeneralising. One evening is one evening. Your brain filed it as a life sentence.
Part 10· written, not yet released
10 things went right. Your brain picked the 1 that didn't. #psychology
Ten things went well today. One didn't. And you know which one you'll be thinking about in the shower. That's discounting the positive. It isn't accuracy. It's a referee who only counts goals against you.
Part 11· written, not yet released
19 kind comments. 1 critic. Guess who your brain remembers. #psychology
Nineteen kind comments and one critical one, and your brain screenshots the critical one. That's called filtering. The day wasn't bad. The edit was.
Part 12· written, not yet released
Forgetting a name doesn't make you an idiot. #psychology #mentalhealth
You forget someone's name and immediately think, God, I'm an idiot. That's called labelling. You're describing one moment and calling it yourself.
Part 13· written, not yet released
Blaming your boss feels great. Here's what it costs you. #psychology
If my boss wasn't such a nightmare, I wouldn't be like this. Sound familiar? That's blaming — self-blame turned inside out. And here's the awkward part: the blame might even be fair. It's just not useful.
Part 14· written, not yet released
Feeling like a burden doesn't make you one. #psychology #mentalhealth
I feel like a burden, so I must be one. Be careful with that sentence — there's a trapdoor in the middle of it. That's emotional reasoning. A feeling is weather, not a verdict. Feeling something doesn't make it true.
Part 15· written, not yet released
Win every argument, lose the relationship. #psychology #mentalhealth
Forty minutes into the argument, and somewhere around minute five it stopped being about the dishes. That's the need to always be right. You can win every argument in a relationship and still lose the relationship.
Part 16· written, not yet released
Win = talent. Lose = bad ref. We all run this bias. #psychology
When you win it's talent, and when you lose the referee was blind. We all do this one. That's self-serving bias. If nothing is ever your fault, then nothing is ever in your power to change.
Part 17· written, not yet released
The invisible invoice nobody knows they owe you. #psychology
You keep sacrificing, keep saying yes, keep going last. Because one day it all pays off. Right? That's the heaven's reward fallacy. The bitterness doesn't come from giving too much. It comes from an invoice nobody knows they owe you.
Part 18· written, not yet released
'I'd be happy if they'd just change.' The waiting trap. #psychology
I'd be happy if they'd just change. How long have you been waiting now? That's the fallacy of change. Waiting for someone else to change hands them the keys to your whole day.
Part 19· written, not yet released
'It's not fair!' True. Here's the trap inside. #psychology #mentalhealth
But that's not fair. You're right. And here we are anyway. That's the fairness fallacy. Fairness is a good value to hold for how you treat people. It's a poor prediction about how life behaves.
Part 20· written, not yet released
Everything your fault — or nothing? Both wrong. #psychology #mentalhealth
Either everything's your fault, or none of it is. Both feel true. Both are wrong. That's the control fallacy. Two opposite mistakes, both drawn from a wrong map of what's actually yours.
Part 64· written, not yet released
10 Thinking Traps, Part 2 — Filtering to Emotional Reasoning
Part 65· written, not yet released
10 Thinking Traps, Part 3 — Always Being Right to the Control Fallacy
Part 23· written, not yet released
The blurry lens: 20 cognitive distortions, one at a time
Part 24
10 Thinking Traps That Bend Reality — Cognitive Distortions, Part 1
Ten of the twenty classic cognitive distortions, explained one at a time by a registered psychologist: what each thinking habit is, why the brain does it, and what to notice instead. Part 1 of 2.