Challenging Fearful Thoughts

The following exercise is designed to help you notice and identify distorted thinking patterns. Read each statement carefully and refer back to the above summary to see how each statement or situation is based on one or more forms of distorted thinking.
1. The washing machine breaks down. A mother with twins in diapers says to herself, “This always happens. I can’t stand it. The whole day’s ruined.”
2. “He looked up from across the table and said, ‘That’s interesting.’ I knew he was dying for breakfast to be over so he could get away from me.”
3. A man was trying to get his girlfriend to be warmer and more supportive. He got irritated every night when she didn’t ask him how his day was or failed to give him the attention he expected.
4. A driver feels nervous on long trips, afraid of having car trouble or getting sick and being stranded far from home. Faced with having to drive 500 miles to Chicago and back, he tells himself, “It’s too far. My car has over 60,000 miles on it - it’ll never make it.”
5. Getting ready for the prom, a high school student thinks, “I’ve got the worst hips in my homeroom, and the second-worst hair … If this French twist comes undone, I’ll just die. I’ll never get it back together and the evening will be ruined … I hope Ron gets his dad’s car. If only he does, everything will be perfect.”