When I was seeing a counselor we talked about similar things that were going on with me. For me they were Snap Judgements or Thinking Traps


1) Magnification and Minimization - for example when I do a great job at work I minimize it in my mind, whereas if I make one tiny mistake I will tend to maximize or magnify it in my mind.

2) Personalization - Blaming my self for things that are out of my control. For example at work if I do everything I can possibly do and something fails due to some external reason (be it someone else’s fault or just a systematic failure) I would blame myself.

3) Labeling - Assigning overly general labels. For example, you make one or two minor mistakes or errors and you call it a total failure.

4) All or nothing thinking - Thinking only in extremes. Sort of like the above, a small error makes something a total failure when really things are not typically black and white and there is a grey area.

5) Emotional Reasoning - Assuming your emotional reaction proves something is true about a situation ( I tend to be hypersensitive so I may perceive a negative reaction as an attack on me)

The work arounds were to do the following:

Question correctness of your thoughts (may only be in your head), think in Shades of Grey, Avoid Generalizations and finally Consider other Factors.

This has helped me. Hope it can help you as well.