None of us are immune to irrational thinking. When life isn’t going the way we want it to, it’s so easy to fall into believing these irrational thoughts. The problem is that irrational thoughts, by definition, aren’t true 一 and repeating them to ourselves only makes us feel worse.
Here, we’ll take you step-by-step through how to recognize, name, and challenge your irrational thoughts.
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What are examples of irrational thoughts?
If you’re a human being, it’s almost guaranteed that you’ve had an irrational thought at some point in your life. Although we all know what irrational thinking feels like, we might not know how to identify and define them when they come up. What, exactly, makes a thought irrational?
Irrational thoughts are thoughts that aren’t based on objective reality. Although some mental health conditions can make irrational thinking more severe, we all get some irrational thoughts from time to time.
Psychological experts have identified different categories of common irrational thoughts. Some of the most common ones include:
- All-or-nothing: Thoughts that divide the world into black and white. For example, “I ate a donut today, so my whole healthy eating journey is worth nothing.”
- Catastrophizing: Making mountains out of molehills. For example, “I got written up at work. I’m probably going to get fired, and I’ll never be able to find another job again. I might even become homeless. My life is over.”
- Mind-reading: Assuming that you know what someone else is thinking or what their intentions are. For example, “Carla didn’t come to my party because she’s annoyed with me and doesn’t want to be my friend anymore.”
- Overgeneralization: Using absolute terms like always or every to generalize one situation to the rest of your life. For example, “I didn’t get that promotion at work. Why do bad things always happen to me? I’ve never been recognized for my accomplishments in my life.”
- Personalization: Thinking something is personal to you, when it isn’t. For example, “Bob seems a little stand-offish today. I wonder what I did to piss him off.”
What causes irrational thinking?
It’s important to understand that to some extent, irrational thoughts are simply a part of the human experience. We’ve all made a big deal out of nothing or fallen into the confirmation bias at some point in our lives. Especially when we’re already under a lot of stress, we may be more likely to fall prey to some of these irrational thinking patterns.
But some mental health conditions can make irrational thinking worse. These include:
- Anxiety disorders
- Depression
- Obsessive-compulsive disorder
- Bipolar disorder
- Personality disorders
- Body dysmorphic disorder
- Eating disorders
Some of these disorders may make irrational thoughts so strong that they start to resemble delusions. But it’s important to note that delusions (a symptom of psychotic disorders like schizophrenia) are not the same thing as irrational thoughts. People with irrational thoughts are usually able to have some level of insight, at least at some points in time, into the unrealistic nature of their thoughts. In other words, just because you’re having some irrational thoughts doesn’t mean that you are experiencing psychosis.
It’s also important to note that everyone gets irrational thoughts sometimes 一 not just people who are diagnosed with the above mental health disorders. If you’re experiencing irrational thinking, don’t blame or judge yourself. Instead, just take the following steps to deal with it.
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How to deal with irrational thinking
The good news is that there are effective, evidence-based ways to manage irrational thinking when they start getting in the way of your life. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is based on the idea that our thoughts (or how we interpret the events that happen to us) affect the way we feel. Often, when we’re experiencing a difficult emotion, the culprit behind it is irrational thinking.
You can use the principles of CBT to recognize, challenge, and change irrational thoughts. First, learn about the different types of common irrational thoughts and what they look like. The list we provided above is a good start, but there are several other ways that irrational thinking can manifest. When you know what irrational thinking sounds like, you’ll be more likely to be able to recognize them when they come up.
Whenever you have a thought that leads to a difficult emotion, do some investigating. What are you saying to yourself? Identify any patterns of irrational thinking, and label it. Are you falling into all-or-nothing thinking? Overgeneralization?
After you’ve identified your irrational thought, you can start to manage it. Examine the thought, and try replacing it with another thought that’s more accurate and helpful.
Let’s try this with the example thoughts above.
- “I ate a donut today, so my whole healthy eating journey is worth nothing.”
- Label the thought as all-or-nothing thinking
- Replace the irrational thought with: “I ate a donut today, but I hadn’t eaten sweets all week before then. I’m still eating much healthier than I used to.”
- “I got written up at work. I’m probably going to get fired, and I’ll never be able to find another job again. I might even become homeless. My life is over.”
- Label the thought as catastrophizing
- Replace the irrational thought with: “I got written up at work, but my manager didn’t say anything about my job being in jeopardy. Plus, I got this job, so I know I’ll be able to get another one if something were to happen.”
- “Carla didn’t come to my party because she’s annoyed with me and doesn’t want to be my friend anymore.”
- Label the thought as mind-reading
- Replace the irrational thought with: “Carla didn’t come to my party, and I have no idea why. I should call her to ask.”
- “I didn’t get that promotion at work. Why do bad things always happen to me? I’ve never been recognized for my accomplishments in my life.”
- Label the thought as overgeneralization
- Replace the irrational thought with: “I didn’t get that promotion at work, and that sucks. I’m upset about that. But last year, I did get a promotion, and sometimes my managers do recognize me for my accomplishments, although I wish they did more often.”
- “Bob seems a little stand-offish today. I wonder what I did to piss him off.”
- Label the thought as personalization
- Replace the irrational thought with: “Bob seems a little stand-offish today. I wonder why, but there’s no evidence that it has anything to do with me.”
If you’re still having trouble challenging your irrational thinking patterns, a therapist can help guide you through more of these exercises so that you can get a handle on irrational, negative thinking once and for all.
